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THE 



SIOUAN INDIANS 



-A PRELi:\[INARY SKETCH 



^^ J M(?(j!-EE 



EXTKACT P^ROM THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 




WASIIIXGTON 

GOVEENMF.NT I'RINTING OFFICE 
1897 



THE 



SIOUAN INDIANS 



A PRELIMINARY SKETCH 



^^^ J MeOEE 



EXTRACT FROM THE FIFTEENTH ANXIAL REPORT OF THE 
BUREAU OF ETHNOLO(;Y 




WAsnrNGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1897 

"5 



^^ 



^r^ 



E5^ 



52300 



N T K N T S 



Tbc Sionaii stock 157 

Detiuitioii 1.57 

Extent of the stock 157 

Tribal nomenclature 166 

Principal characters 168 

Phonetic and graphic arts 168 

Industrial and esthetic arts 170 

Institutions 176 

Beliefs 178 

The development of mythology 178 

The 8iouan mythology 182 

Somatology 185 

Habitat 186 

Organization 187 

History 189 

Dalvota-Asiuiboin 189 

(/'egiha 191 

J aiwe're 194 

Winnebago 195 

JIandan 196 

Hidatsa 197 

The eastern and southern groups -- - 198 

lleni'ral movements 198 

Some features of Indian sociologv 199 



THE SIOIIAN INDIANS 

A PRELIMINAKY SKETCH' 



By W J McClEE 
THE SIOUAX STOCK 

DEFINITION 
EXTENT OF THE STOCK 

Out of some sixty aboriginal stocks or families fouud in S"ortli Amer- 
ica above the Tropic of Cancer, about five-sixths were confined to the 
tenth of the territory bordering Pacific ocean ; the remaining nine-tenths 
of the land was occupied by a few strong stocks, comprising the Algon- 
(juian, Athapascan, Iroquoian, Shoshonean, Siouan, and others of more 
limited extent. 

The Indians of the Siouan stock occupied the central portion of the 
continent. They were preeminently plains Indians, ranging from Lake 
Michigan to the Rocky mountains, and from tlie Arkansas to the Sas- 
katchewan, while an outlying body stretched to the shores of the 
Atlantic. They were typical American barbarians, headed by hunters 
and warriors and grouped in shifting tribes led by the chase or driven 
by battle from place to place over their vast and naturally rich domain, 
though a crude agriculture sprang up whenever a tribe tarried long in 
one spot. No native stock is more interesting than the great Siouan 
group, and none save the Algonquian and Iroquoian approach it in 
wealth of literary and historical records; for since the advent of wliite 
men the Siouan Indians have played striking roles on the stage of 
human development, and have caught the eye of every thoughtful 
observer. 

The term Siouan is the adjective denoting the "Sioux'' Indians and 
cognate tribes. The word "Sioux'' has been variously and vaguely 
used. Originally it was ai corruption of a term exjiressing enmity or 
contempt, applied to a part of the plains tribes by the forest dwelling 
Algonquian Indians. According to Trumbull, it was the popular appel- 
lation of those tribes which call themselves Dakota, Lakota, or Nakota 

'Prepared as a compleiiipnt and introduction to the following paper nn ■•Siouan Sociology." by the 
late James Owen Dorsev. 

157 



158 THK SIOUAN INDIANS |eth. axn. 15 

("rrieiiiUy,'' implying coiiredeiated or allied), and was an abbreviation 
of Xadoiroisioiu-, a Oanadiau-I'reiieh corruption of Xadi>ires.si-wag 
("tlie snake-like ones'* or '-enemies"), a term rooted in the Aljronquian 
iiadoire (''a snake"'); and some writers have ai)plied the designation to 
difl'erent portions of the stock, while others have rejected it because of 
the ofllensive implication or for other reasons. So long ago as 18.'56, 
however, Gallatin employed the term ''Sioux'" to designate collectively 
•'the nations which sjjcak the Sioux language,'"' and used an alterna- 
tive term to designate the subordinate confederacj' — i. e.. he used the 
term in a systematic way for the first time to denote an ethnic unit 
which exi)erience has shown to be well defined. Gallatin's terminology 
was .soon after adopteil by I'richard and others, and has been followed 
by most careful writers on the American Indians. Accordingly the 
name must be regarded as established through priority and prescrij). 
tion, and has been used in the original sense in various standard 
publications. - 

In colloquial usage and in the usage of the ephemeral i)ress, the 
term "Si(mx'" was applied sometimes to one but oftener to several of 
the allied tribes embraced in the first of the principal groups of which 
the stock is comjiosed, i. e., the group or confederacy styling them- 
selves Dakota. Sometimes the term was employed in its simple form, 
but as explorers and pioneers gained an inkling of the organization of 
the grou]), it was often compounded with the tribal name as "Sautee- 
Sioux," ■' Yanktounai-Sioux," "Sisseton Sioux," etc. As acquaintance 
between white men and red increased, the stock name was gradually 
disjjlaced by tribe names until the colloquial appellation '-Sioux" 
became but a memory or tradition throughout much of the territory 
formerly dominated by the great Siouan stock. One of the reasons 
for the abandonment of the name was undoubtedly its inappropriateness 
as a designation for the confederacy occupying the plains of the upper 
Missouri, since it was an alien and opprobrious designation for a i)eo- 
ple bearing a euphonious appellation of their own. Moreover, colloquial 
usage was gratlually intluenced by the usage of scholars, who accepted 
the native nanu^ for the Dakota (s])elled Dahcota by (iallatiu) confed- 
eracy, as well as the tribal names adopted by Gallatin, I'richard, and 
others. Thus the ill-defined term '-Sioux"" has drojjped out of use in 
the substantive form, and is retained, in the adjective form only, to 
designate a great stock to which nu other collective name, either intern 
or alien, has ever been (Ictiniicly and justly applied. 

The earlier students of tiie Siouan Indians recognized the plains 
tribes alone as belonging to that stock, and it has only recently been 
shown that certain of the native forest -dwellers long ago encountered 
by English colonists on the Atlantic coast were clo.sely akin to the 

'••& synopais of tlir Iniliun Iribtg . . in Xortli Aim-rici.' Tr.liis. and Cull. Am. Autiq.Soc., 

vol. II. I>. 120. 

'■■Inilian liiigiii»lii'lniiiilu'8 of Amoricanorlli of Mexico." Seventh Annual Heporl of the Barcmi of 
Ethnolojjj. for IKOS-SG (1891), iiji. 111-118. Johnson's Cyclopedia. lfi93-95 idiliou, vol. vii, p. 516. etc. 



MCGEE] SIOUAN TRIRKS OF THE KAST 159 

plains Indians in hingaage, institutions, and beliefs. In 1872 TIale 
noted a resemblance between the Tutelo and Dakota languages, and tliis 
resemblance was discussed orally and in correspondence with several 
students of Indian languages, but the probability of direct connection 
seemed so remote that the affinity was not generally accepted. Even 
in 1S80, after extended comparison with Dakota material (including 
that collected by the newly instituted Bureau of Ethnology), this 
distinguished investigator was able to detect only certain general simi- 
larities between the Tutelo tongue and the dialects of the Dakota 
tribes.' In 1881 Clatschet made a collection of linguistic material 
among the Catawba Indians of South Carolina, and was struck with 
the resemblance of many of the vocables to Sionan terms of like mean- 
ing, and began the preparation of a comparative Catawba-Dakota 
vocabulary. To this the Tutelo, (j'egiha, j^.jiwe're, and Ilotcangara 
(Winnebago) were added by Dorsey, who made a critical examinati()n 
of all Catawba material extant and compared it with several Dakota 
dialects, with which he was specially conversant. These examniations 
and comparisons demonstrated the afiSnity between the Dakota and 
Catawba tongues and showed them to be of common descent; and the 
establishment of this relation made easy the acceptance of the affinity 
suggested by Hale between the Dakota and Tutelo. 

Up to this time it was supposed that the eastern tribes "were merely 
offshoots of the Dakota;'' but in 188.> Hale observed that "while the 
language of these eastern tribes is closely allied to that of the western 
Dakota, it bears evidence of being older in form,"^ and consecpiently 
that the Siouan tribes of the interior seem to have migrated westward 
from a common fatherland with their eastern brethren bordering the 
Atlantic. Subsequently Gatschet discovered that the Biloxi Indians 
of the Gulf coast used many terms common to the Siouan tongues; and 
in 1801 Dorsey visited tliese Indians and procured a rich collection of 
words, phrases, and myths, whereby the Siouan affinity of these Indians 
was established. Meantime Mooney began researches among the Cher- 
okee and cognate tribes of the southern Atlantic slope and found fresh 
evidence that their ancient neighbors were related in tongue and belief 
with the buffalo hunters of tiie plains; and he has recently set fortli 
the relations of the several Atlantic slope tribes of Siouan affinity in full 
detail.^ Through the addition of these eastern tribes the great Siouan 
stock is augmented in extent and range and enhanced in interest; for 
the records of a group of cognate tribes are thereby increased so fully 
as to afford historical perspective and to indicate, if not clearly to dis- 
play, the course of tribal differentiation. 

According to Dorsey, whose acquaintance with the Siouan Indians 
was especially close, the main portion of the Siouan stock, occu])ying 
the continental interior, comprised seven principal divisions (including 

'Correspondence with the Bureau of Ethnology. 

2 "The Tutelo tribe and language," Proc. Aui. Philos. Soc, vol. xxi, 1883, p. 1. 

'Sionan Tribes of the East: bulletin of tlie Bureau of Ethnology. 1894. 



160 THE SIOl'AN INDIANS [kth. ann. 15 

the Biloxi and not distinguishing tbe Asiniboiii). each composed of 
one or more tribes or confederacies, all dettned antl classitied by lin- 
guistic, social, and niytliologic relations; and he and Mooney recoguize 
several additional groups, defined by linguistic attinity or historical evi- 
dence of intimate relations, in the eastern part of the country. So far 
as made out through the latest researches, the grand divisions, confed- 
eracies, aiul tribes of tlic stock,' with their present condition, are as 
follows : 

1. I>(l1;iilii-.l.sinih(tiii 

Dakota ("Friendly") or Ot'-ce-ti ca-ko-wi" ("Seven council-fires") con- 
federacy, comprising — 

(A) Santee. including Mde-wa-ka"'-to"-wa" ("Spirit Lake vil- 
lage"') and Waqpe'-ku-te (" Shoot among deciduous trees"), 
mostly located in Knox county, Nebraska, on the former 
Santee reservation, with some on Fort Peck reservation, 
Montana. 

(B) Sisseton or Si-si'to°-wa"' (••Fish-.scale village"), mostly ou 
Sissetou reservation, .South Dakota, partly on Devils Lake 
reservation, Xorth Dakota. 

{G) Wahpetou or Wa'-(ipe'-to"-wa" (''Dwellers among deciduous 
trees"), mostly ou Devils Lake reservation. North Dakota. 

(D) Yankton or 1 haiik'-to" wa" ("End village"), in Yankton 
village, South Dakota. 

(E) Yanktonai or Ihank'-to"-wa"-na ("Little End village"), 
comprising — 

(rt) Upper Yanktonai, on Standing Rock reservation. 
North Dakota, with the Pa'-ba-kse ("Cut head ") gens 
on Devils Lake reservation, North Dakota. 

(b) Lower Yanktonai, or IIurik]>atina ("Campers at the 
horn [or end of the cam])ing circle]"), mostly on Crow 
Creek reservation. South Dakota, with some on Stand- 
ing Rock reservation. North Dakota, and others on 
Fort Peck reservation, .Montana. 

(F) Teton or Ti'-to"-wa" ("Prairie dwellers"), comprising — 

(«) Bruh' or Si-tca"'-xu ("Huriit thighs"), including Upper 
Brule, mostly on Rosebud reservation. South Dakota, 
and Lower Hrule, on Lower Brule reservation, in the 
same state, with some of both on Standing Rock 
reservation, North Dakota, and others ou Fort Peck 
re.servation. Montana. 

{b) Sans Arcs or I ta'zip,tco(" Without hows"), largely on 
Cheyenne reservation. South Dakota, with others on 
Standing Rock reservation, Xorth Dakota. 

(<■) IJlackfeet or Si ha' sapa ("Black-feet"), mostly on 
Cheyenne reservation, South Dakota, with some on 
Standing Rock reservation. North Dakota. 



■ Tho aiibdiviaions lire set forth in the folloiriiig treatise on "Sionan Sociology." 



MCGEE) THE ASINIBOIX THK (I'KfUHA Ifil 

{(}) Miiuiecoiijoii or Mi'-niko'-o-jii ("Plant beside the 
streaiu"), mostly on Cheyenne reservation, South 
Dakota, partly on llosebud reservation, South Dakota, 
with some on Standing Rock reservation. North 
Dakota. 
(e) Two Kettles or O-o'-lu^ no"'-i)a ("Two boilings"'), ou 

Cheyenne reservation. South Dakota. 
(./) Ogalala or O gla'-la ("She poured out her own"), 
mostly ou Piue Ridge reservation, South Dakota, with 
some ou Standing Rock reservation, Xorth Dakota, 
including the Wa-ja'-ja ("Fringed"') gens ou Pine 
Ridge reservation, South Dakota, and Loafers or 
Waglu'-xe ("In-breeders"), mostly ou Pine Ridge 
reservation, with some ou Rosebud reservation, South 
Dakota. 
(//) Hunkpapa ("At the entrance"), ou Standing Rock 
reservation, North Dakota. 
Asiniboiu ("Cookwith-stones people'' in Algonquiau), commonly called 
Xakota among themselves, and called Ilohe ("Rebels'") by the 
Dakota; au ofi'shoot from the Yauktounai ; not studied in detail dur- 
ing recent years; partly ou Fort Peck reservation, Montana, mostly 
in Canada; comprising in 1S33 (according to Prince Maximilian)' — 
(.■i) Itscheabim- ("Les gens des tilles"=Girl people?). 
(/.*) Jatonabine ("Les gens des roches"=Stoue people); appar- 
ently the leading band. 
(C) Otopachguato ("Les gens du large"=Roamers?). 
(/') Otaopabine ("Les gens des canots''=Canoe people?). 

(E) Tschantoga ("Les gens des bois''=Forest people). 

(F) Watopachnato ("Les gens de rage"= Ancient people?). 
(tr) Tanintauei ("Les gens des osayes"=Bone people). 

(H) Chiibin ("Les gens des niontagnes"=Mouutaiu people). 

2. (I',e(jiha {'■'■ People dn-cUiiuj here''')'' 

{A) Omaha or U-ma"-ha° ("Upstream people"), located on 
< )maha reservation, Nebraska, comprisiug iu 1819 (accord- 
ing to James)^ — 

((() Ilouga-sha-no tribe, including — 

(1) Wase-isli-ta band. 

(2) Enk-ka-sa-ba band. 



* Travels in the Interior of North America ; Translated by H. Evans Lloyd : London, 1843, p. 194. 
In this and other lists of names taken from early writers the original orthography and interpretation 
are preserved. 

'Defined in" The (fegiha Language," by J. GwenDorsey, Cont. N. A. Eth., vol. VI, 1890, p. xv. Miss 
Fletcher, who is intimately acquainted witli the Omaha, <iuestions whether the relations between the 
tribes are so close as to warrant the maintenance of this division; yet as an expression of linguistic 
atfinity, at least, the division seems to be useful and desirable. 

3 Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the Years 1819- 
1820. . . undertbeCommandof Majors. H. Long, by Edwin James; London, 1823, vol. 11, p. 47 etseq. 
15 ETH 11 



102 THE SIOL'AK INDIANS [eth. ans. 15 

(3) Wa-sa-ba-eta-je (''Those who do not touch 

bears") baud. 

(4) Kaeta-.je (-'Those who do not touch tuitk-s") 

band. 

(5) Wajinga-e-ta jc Ijand. 

(0) riuiifruli band. 

(7) Konza band. 

(8) Ta-pa-taJ-je band. 

(b) Ish-tasun-da (''Gray eyes") tribe, inehidinjr — 

(1) Tapa-eta-Je band. 

(2) Mon-eka-goh-ha ('' Earth makers") baud. 

(3) Ta-sin-da ("Bison tail") band. 

(4) IiifTgera-jeda ("Red dung") liand. 
(.5) Wash-atuQg baud. 

{]i) I'onka ("Medicine'' ?), mostly on Ponca reservation. Indian 

Territory, partly at Santee agency, Nebraska. 
{(]) Kwapa, (^uapaw, or T7->ja'-<ipa ("Downstream jfeople,"* a 
correhitive of U-ma"'-ha°), the '"Arkansa" of early writers, 
mostly on Osage reservation, Oklahoma, jiartly on Quajjaw 
reservation, Indian Territory. 
{!)) Osage or Waca'-ce ("People"), comprising — 

(a) Big Osage or I'ahe'-tsi ("Campeison tiic mountain''), 

on Osage reservation, Indian Territory. 
(/;) Little Osage or U-jscq'-ta (" Camiiers on the low- 
land,") on Osage reservation, Indian Territory. 

(c) San-;su'-j[(|-i"' ("Campers in the highland grove") or 

"Arkansa baud," chietly on Osage reservation, Indian 

Territory. 
(E) Ivansa or Ka"'-ze (refers to winds, though jjredse signifi- 
cance is unknowu; frequently called Kaw), on Kansas reser- 
vatiou, Indian Territory. 

3. j^oiirc're {'■^People of this phtce") 

(A) lowaor Pa-qo-tce (" Dusty-heads''), chiefly on Great Nemaha 
reservation, Kansas and Nebraska, partly on Sac and Fox 
reservation, Indian Territory. 

(B) Oto or Wato'-ta ("Aplirodiaian''), on Otoe reservation, 
Indian Territory, 

(C) Missouri or Ni u't'a-tci (exact meaning uueertain; said to 
refer to drowning of peojjle in a stream; i)0ssibly a corrup- 
tion of Nishu'-dje, "Smoky water," the name of Missouri 
river); on Otoe reservation. Indian Territory. 

t. \Vlnii,h(l;i<i 

Winnebago (Algonquian designation, meaning " Turbid water 
people"?) or Ilo-tcangara (" People of the parent speech"), 

> Corrupled to "Cbancers" io early days: cf. Jam«8 ibid., vol. III. p. 108. 



THE WINNEBAGO THE MANPAN 163 

mostly oil Winnebago reservation in Nebraska, some in Wis- 
consin, and a few in Micbiyan ; composition never definitely 
ascertained; comprised in 1850 (according to Sclioolcraft') 
twenty-one bands, all west of the ^lississippi, viz. : 
(rt) Little Mills' band. 

(b) Little Dekonie's band. 

(c) ;\Iaw-kiibsooncli-kaw"s baml. 
((/) ITo-pee-kaw's band. 

((") Waw-kon-liawkaw's band. 

(/) Baptiste's band. 

((/) AVeenoosliik's band. 

(/() Oon-a-hatakaw's band. 

(i) Paw-sedechkaw's band. 

(_/) Taw-nu-niik's band. 

(A) Ah-lioo-zeeb-kaw's band. 

(I) Is-cbaw-go-baw-kaw's band. 

(m) Watcb-lia-takaw's band. 

(») Wawmaw-noo-kaw-kaw's band. 

(«) Waw-kon-cliaw-zn-kaw's band. 

{p) Good Thunder's band. 

{q) Koog-ay-ray-kaw's baud. 

(/•) Black Hawk's band. 

(s) Little Thunder's baud. 

(t) Naw-key-kukaw's band. 

(u) O-chiu-chiu-nukaw's band. 

5. Mandan 

Mandan (their owu name is questionable; Catlin saj's they 
called themselves See-pohs-kah nu-mah-kahkee, " Teople 
of the pheasants;"- Prince Maximilian says they called 
themselves Numangkake, "Men," adding usually the name 
of their village, and that another name is Mahna-Xarra, 
"The Sulky [Ones]," applied because they separated from 
the rest of their nation; ' of the latter name their common 
appellation seems to be a corruption); on Fort Berthold 
reservation, North Dakota, comprising iu 1804 (according 
to Lewis and Clark ^) three villages — 

(a) ]Matootoiiha. 

(b) Rooptahee. 

(v) (Eapanopa's village). 



• Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United 
States, part l, Philadelphia, 1853, p. 498. 

'Letters and Notes on the Manners. Customs, and Conditinn of the Xorth American In<ltans, -itb 
edition: London. 1844, vol. 1. p. 80. 
^Travels, op. cit., p. 335. 

* History of the Expedition under the Command of Lewis and Clark, by Elliott Cones, 1893, vol. I, 
pp. 18"J-4. The other two villages enumerated apjiear to belong rather to the Hidatsa. Prince Mali- 
miliiin found but two villaj^es iu 1833, Mih-Tutta Hang-Kush and Ruhptare, evidently corresponding 
to the tirst two mentioned by the earlier explorers (op. cit., p. 335). 



164 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. axn. 15 

C. HidntsH 

(A 1 1 idatsa i tlieir owu name, the meaning of wliicli is uncertain, 
but ai)peais to refer to a traditional butt'alo pauuch cou- 
nected with the division of tlie group, though supposed by 
some to refer to " willows'") ; formerly called Minitari ('• Cross 
the water,'' or, objectionally, Gros Ventres); on Fort Herth- 
old reservation, Xorth Dakota, comprising in 1 796 (according 
to information gained by ilattbews') three villages — 

(«) Hidatsa. 

(&) Amafiha ("Earth-lodge [village]*'?), 
(r) Amaliami ("Mountain-country [people]"?). 
{B) Crow or Ab-sa'-ru-ke, on the Grow reservation, Montana. 

7. liilo.ri 

(A) Biloxi ("Trifliiig" or "^Vorthless" in Choctaw) or Ta-neks' 
Ha"-ya-di' ("Original people" in tljeir own language); partly 
in Eai)i(les parish, Louisiana ; i)artly in Indian Territory, with 
the Choctaw and Caddo. 

(/>') Taskagula ("Bread people" in Choctaw), probably extinct. 

(C) ?Moctobi (meaning unknown), extinct. 

( />) ?Chozetta (meaning unknown), extinct. 

s. MoiiuLiin 
]M()uakan confederacy. 

(.1) ^louakan ("Country [people of?]"),? extinct. 
(/)') Meipontsky (meaning unknown), extinct. 

(C) tMahoc (meaning unknown), extinct. 

(D) Nuntaneuck or >'untaly (meaning unknown), extinct. 
{E) Mohetan ("People of the earth'"?), extinct. 

Tutelo. 

(.1) Tutelo or Ve-sa'" (meaning unknown), probably extinct. 

{A') Saponi (meaning unknown), probably extinct. (According 
to ^loouey, the Tutelo and Saponi tribes were intimately con- 
nected or identical, and the names were used interchange- 
ably, the former becoming more prominent after the removal 
of the tribal remnant from the Carolinas to New York.^) 

(7>) Occanichi (meaiung unknown), probably extinct. 
! Mauahoac confederacy, extinct. 

(.4) Jlanahoac (meaning unknown). 

(7>) vStegarake (meaning unknown). 

(C) Shackakoui (meaning unknown). 

{£>) Tauxitauia (meaning unknown). 



'Ethnography unci rhilology of the Hiilatan Indians ; MisceL Publ. No. 7, U. S. Geol. and Geog. 
Survey. 1877. p. 38. 

'Siiiuaii Tribes of Ihe En»t, p. 37. Local names derive<l from the Saponi dialect were recognized and 
interprt'led liy a Kwapa when pronouiiceil by Dorsey. 



MCGEEl EASTERN SIOUAN DIVISIOxVS 165 

(E) Outpoui (meaiiiug unknown). 

(F) Tegniati (meaning unknown). 

(G) Wlioukenti (meaning unknown). 
(//) liasinniuga (uieauiog unknown). 

!t. (Uitiurhd or Xi-j/a (^•People") 

(A) Catawba (meaning unknown; they called themselves Xi-ya, 
''Men" in the comprehensive sense), nearly extinct. 

(7>) Woccou (meaning unknown), extinct. 

(C) ? Sissipahaw (meaning unknow-n), extinct. 

(D) ? Cape Fear (proper name unknown), extinct. 

(E) 1 Warrenuuncoek (meaning unknown), extinct. 
{F) °? Adshusheer (meaning unknown), extinct. 
{G) ? Eno (meaning unknown), extinct. 

(H) ! Sbocco (meaning unknown), extinct. 

[I) ? Waxliaw (meaning unknown), extinct. 

(.7) ? Sugeri (meaning unknown), extinct. 

(K) Santee (meaning unknown). 

(L) Wateree (derived from the ('atawl)a -word watoran, "to 

float in the water"'). 
(.1/) Sewee (meaning unknown). 
(K) Cougaree (meaning unknown). 

10. Sara (extinct) 

{A) Sara ("Tall grass"). 

(B) Keyauwi (meaning unknown). 

11. / Pedee (extinct) 

(A) Pedee (meaning unknown). 

(B) Waccamaw (meaning unknown). 
(0) Winyaw (meaning unknown). 
(D) "Hooks" and "Backhooks"( ?). 

The definition of the first six of these divisions is based on extended 
researches among the tribes and in the literature representing the 
work of earlier observers, and may be regarded as satisfactory. In some 
cases, notably the Dakota confederacy, the constitution of the divi- 
sions Is also satisfactory, though in others, including the Asiniboin, 
Mandan, and Winnebago, the tabulation represents little more thau 
superficial enumeration of villages and bands, generally by observers 
possessing little knowledge of Indian sociology or language. So far 
as the survivors of the Biloxi are concerned the classification is satis- 
factory; but there is doubt concerning the former limits of the 
division, and also concerning the relations of the extinct tribes referred 
to on slender, yet the best available, evidence. The classification of 



166 THE SIOUAN INDIANS Jeth. anx. 15 

the extinct and nearly extinct Siouan Indians of the east is much less 
satisfactory. lu several cases lan^'iiajies are utterly lost, and in others 
a few doubtful terms alone remain. In these cases affinity is inferred 
in part from geographic relation, but chielly from the recorded feder- 
ation of tribes and union of remnants as the aboriginal population 
faded under thelight of brighter intelligence; and in all such instances 
it has been assumed that federation and uiuon grew out of that con- 
formity in mode of thought which is characteristic of peoples speaking 
identical or closely related tongues. Accordingly, while the groui)ing 
of eastern tribes rests in part on meager testimony and is open to 
question at many points, it is perhaps the best that can be devised, 
and sullices for convenience of statement if not as a tinal classification. 
So far as practicable the names adopted for the tribes, confederacies, 
and other groups are those in common use. the aboriginal designations, 
when distinct, being added in those cases in whicli they are known. 

The present population of the Siouan stock is probably between 
40.()(»(» and 4.">,000, including L'.noo or more (mainly Asiniboiu) in 
Canada. 

TRIBAL NOMENCLATUKE 

In the Siouan stock, as among the American Indians generally, the 
accepted ai)pellations for tribes and other groups are variously derived. 
IVIany of the Siouan tribal names were, like the name of the stock, 
given by alien peoples, including white men, though most are founded 
on the descriptive or other designations used in the groups to which 
they ])ertain. At lirst glance, the names seem to be loosely ajjplied 
and jierhaps vaguely defined, and this laxity in api)li(ation and defini- 
tion does not disapjiear, but rather increases, with closer exannnation. 

There are special reasons for the indefmiteness of Indian nomen- 
clature: The aborigines were at the time of discovery, and indeed 
most of them remain today, in the prescriptorial stage of culture, i. e., 
the stage in which ideas are crystallized, not by means of arbitrary 
symbols, but by nieaiis of arbitrary associations,' and in this stage 
names are connotive or descrii)tive, rather than deuotive as in the 
scriptorial stage. Moreover, among the Indians, as among all other 
prescriptorial peoples, the ego is paramount, and all things are 
described, much more largely than among cultured peoples, with 
reference to the describer and the position which he occupies — Self 
and Here, and, if need be, Now and Thus, are the fundamental ele- 
ments of primitive conception ami description, and these elements 
are implied and exemi)litied. ratlier than expressed, in thought and 
utterance. Accordingly there is a notable paucity in names, espe 
daily for themselves, among the Indian tribes, while the descrip. 
five designations applieil to a given group by neighboring tribes are 
often diverse. 



'Tlif loadinK culture stages ait< defined in the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth- 
nology, for 1891-i>2 (1890), p. xxiii ct seq. 



MCGEE] SIOUAN TRIBAL NOMENCLATURE 167 

The principles controlling nomenclature in its indicate stages are 
illustrated among tbe Siouaii jieoples. So far as their own tongues were 
concerned, the stock was nameless, and could not be designated save 
through integral parts. Even the great Dakota confederacy, one of the 
most extensive and i)owerful aboriginal organizations, bore no better 
designation than a term probably applied originally to associated tribes 
in a descriptive way and perhaps used as a greeting or countersign, 
although there was an alternative proper descriptive term — "Seven 
Council-flres" — apparently of considerable anticjuitj", since it seems to 
have been originally applied before the separation of the Asiniboin.' 
Ill like manner the (pegiha, j^oiwe're, and Hotcafigara groups, and per- 
haps the jSf lya, were without deuotive designations for themselves, merely 
styling themselves " Local People," " Men," " Inhabitants,-' or, still more 
ambitiously, " People of the Parent Speech," in terms which are variously 
rendered by different interpreters; they were lords in their own domain, 
and felt no need for special title. Different Dakota tribes went so far 
as to claim that their respective habitats marked the middle of the 
world, so that each insisted on iirecedeuce as the leading tribe,' and 
it was the boast of the Mandaii that they were the original people of 
the earth.' In the more carefully studied confederacies the constituent 
groups generally bore designations apparently used for convenient dis- 
tinction in the confederation ; sometimes they were purely descriptive, 
as in the case of the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Sans Arcs, Blackfeet, Oto, and 
several others; again they referred to the federate organization (prob- 
ably, possibly to relative position of habitat), as in the Yankton, Yauk- 
tonai, and Huhkpapa; more fre(piently they referred to geographic or 
topographic position, e. g., Teton, Omaha, Pahe'tsi, Kwapa, etc; while 
some appear to have had a figurative or symbolic connotation, as Brule, 
Ogalala, and Ponka. Usually the designations employed by alien peo- 
ples were more definite than those used in the group designated, as 
illustrated by the stock name, Asiniboin, and Iowa. Commonly the 
alien appellations were terms of reproach; thus Sioux, Biloxi, and 
Hohe (the Dakota designation for the Asiniboin) are clearly opprobri- 
ous, while Paskagula might easily be opprobrious among hunters and 
warriors, and Iowa and Oto appear to be derogatory or contemptuous 
expressions. The names applied by the whites were sometimes taken 
from geographic positions, as in the case of Upper Yanktouai and 
Cape Fear — the geographic names themselves being frequently of 
Indian origin. Some of the current names represent translations of 
the aboriginal terms either into English ('• Blackfeet," "Two Kettles," 
"Crow,") or into French ("Sans Arcs," "Brule," " Gros Ventres ") ; 
yet most of the names, at least of the prairie tribes, are simply cor- 
ruptions of the aboriginal terms, though frequently the modification is 
so complete as to render identification and interpretation difticult — it 

iCf. Schoolcraft, '■ Information," etc, op. cit., jit. ii, 1852, p. 169. Dorsey was Inclined to consider 
the number as made up without the Asiniboin. 
'Eiggs-Dorsey : " Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography," Cont. N. A. Eth., vol. IX, 1893. p. 164 
^Catlin; " Letters and Notes," op. cit., p. 80. 



168 THE SIOUAX IXDIAXS (ETH. AKS. 15 

is not easy to find Waca'ce in -'Osage'' (so s])i'lle(l by the French, whose 
orthogr;ii)hy was adopted and mispronounced by English-speaking 
pioneers ), or l^a'qotce in '• Iowa." 

The meanings of most of the eastern names are lost; yet so far as 
they are preserved they are of a kind with those of tlie interior. So, 
too, are the siibtribal names enumerated by Dorsey. 

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS 
PIIOXETIC AXn GRAPHIC ARTS 

The Si(maii stock is defined by linguistic characters. The several 
tribes and larger and smaller groups speak dialects so closely related 
as to imply occasional or habitual association, and hence to indicate 
community in interests and aflinity in development; and while the arts 
(reflecting as they did the varying environment of a wide territorial 
range) were diversified, the similarity in language was. as is usual, 
accompanied by similarity in institutions and beliefs. Nearly all of 
the known dialects are eminently vocalic, and the tongues of the i)lains, 
which have been most extensively stutlied. are notably melodious; thus 
the leading languages of the group display moderately high jihonetic 
development. In grammatic structure the better-known dialects are 
not so well devcloiieil ; the structure is comjilex. chiefly through the large 
use of inflection, tliougli agglutination sometimes occurs. In some cases 
the germ of organization is ftmnd in fairly definite juxtaposition or 
I)laccment. The vocabulary is moderately rich, and of course represents 
the daily needs of a primitive i^eople. their surroundings, their avoca- 
tions, and their thoughts, while expressing little of the richer ideation 
of cultured cosmopolites. On the whole, the speech of the Siouan stock 
may be sai<l to have been fairly developed, and may. with the Algon- 
quian. Iroquoian. and Shoshonean, be regarded as typical for the por- 
tion of North America lying north of 3Iexico. Fortunately it has been 
extensively studied by Kiggs, Hale. Dorsey. and several others, includ- 
ing distinguished rei)reseiitatives of some of the tribes, and is thus 
accessible to students. The high phonetic development of the Siouan 
tongues reflects the needs and records the history of the hunter and 
warrior tribes, whose phonetic symbols were necessarily so ditleren- 
tiateil as to be intelligible in whisper, oratory, and war cry. as well as 
iu ordinary converse, while the complex structure is in harmony with 
the elaborate social organization and ritual of the Siouan ])eoi>le. 

Many of the Siouan Indians were adepts iu the sign language; 
indeed, this mode of conveying intelligence attained perhaps its high- 
est develo]mient among some of the tribes of this stock, who, with 
other plains Indians, developed i)antomiine and gesture into a surpris- 
ingly perfect art of expression adapted to the needs of huntsmen and 
warriors. 

Most of the tribes were fairly proficient in ])ictography ; totemic and 
other designs were inscribed on bark and wood, painted on skins, 



McoEEl GRAPHIC SYMBOLISM 169 

wrouglit into domestic wares, and sometimes carved on rocks. Jona- 
than Carver gives an example of picture-writing on a ti'ee, in cliarcoal 
mixed with bear's grease, designed to convey information from the 
''Chipe'ways"(Algouquiau) to the "Naudowessies,"' and other instances 
of intertribal communication by means of ijictography are on record. 
Personal decoration was common, and was largely symbolic; the face 
and body were painted in distinctive ways when going on the warpath, 
in organizing the hunt, in mourning the dead, in celebrating the vic- 
tory, and in performing various ceremonials. Scarification and m:nm- 
ing were practiced by some of the tribes, always in a symbolic way. 
Among the Mandan and Hidatsa scars were produced in cruel ceremo- 
,nials originally connected with war and liunting, and served as endur- 
ing witnesses of courage and fortitude. Symbolic tattooing was fairly 
common among the westernmost tribes. Eagle and other feathers were 
worn as insignia of rank and f(u- other symbolic purjioses. while bear 
claws and the scalps of enemies were worn as symbols of the chase 
and battle. Some of the tribes recorded current history by means of 
"winter counts'' or calendaric inscriptions, though their arithmetic 
was meager and crude, and their calendar pioper was limited to recog- 
nition of the year, lunation, and day — oi', as among so many primitive 
people, the "snow," "dead moon." and "night,'' — with no definite sys- 
tem of fitting lunations to the annual seasons. Most of the graphic 
records were perishable, and have long ago disappeared; but during 
recent decades several untutored tribesmen have executed vigorous 
drawings representing hunting scenes and conflicts with white soldiery, 
which have been preserved or reproduced. These crude essays in 
graphic art were the germ of writing, and indicate that, at the time of 
discovery, several Siouan tribes were near the gateway opening into 
the broader field of scriptorial culture. So far as it extends, the crude 
graphic symbolism betokens warlike habit and militant organization, 
which were doubtless measurably inimical to further progress. 

It would appear that, in connection with Their proficiency in gesture 
speech and their meager graphic art, the Siouan Indians had become 
masters in a vaguely understood system of dramaturgy or symbolized 
conduct. Among them the use of the peace-pipe was general; among 
several and perhaps all of the tribes the definite use of insignia was com- 
mon ; among them the customary hierarchic organization of the abo- 
rigines was remarkably developed and was maintained by an elaborate 
and strict code of etiquette whose observance was exacted and yielded 
by every tribesman. Thus the warriors, habituated to expressing and 
recognizing tribal affiliation and status in address and deportment, were 
notably observant of social minutiie, and this habit extended into every 
activity of their lives. They were ceremonious among themselves and 

■Travels Through the Interior Parts of Xorth America in the Tears 1766. 1767, and 1768: London, 
1778, p. 418. 



Ill I THE SIOUAX INDIANS [eth. axn. 15 

ciat'ty toward enemies, tactful diplomatists as well as brave soldiers, 
shrewd stratejjists as well as lieree tighters: ever tliey were skillful 
readers of liiiiiiau nature, even when ruthless takers of human life. 
Anionfr some of the tribes every movement and gesture and expires- 
sion of the male adult seems to have been afleeted or conrrolled with 
the view of impressing spectators and auditors, and through constant 
schooling the warriors became most consummate actors. To the casual 
observer, they were stoics or stupids according to the conditions of 
observation: to many observers, they were cheats or charlatans; to 
scientitic students, tlieir eccentrically develoi)ed volition and the thau- 
maturgy by which it was normally accomjianied suggests early stages 
in that curious development wliicli. in the Orient, culminates in necro- 
mancy and occultism. Unfortunately this phase of the Indian char- 
acter (which was shared by various tribes) was little apjjieciated by 
the early travelers, and little record of it remains: yet there is enough 
to indicate the importance of constantly studied ceremony, or symbolic 
conduct, among them. Tlie development of affectation and self-control 
among tlie Siouan tribesmen was undoulitedly shaped by warlike dis- 
jKjsition. and theii- stoicism was displayed largely in war — as when the 
cai)tured warrior went exultingly to the torture, taunting and tempting 
his ca])tors to multiply their atrocities even until his tongue was torn 
from its roots, in order that his fortitude might be jtroved ; but the 
habit was tirmly fixed and found constant expression in commonplace 
as well as in more dramatic actions. 

INDISTHIAI. AND KSTHKTIC AKTS 

Since the arts of primitive i)e()i)h' letlect environmental conditions 
with close fidelity, and since the Siouuu Indians were distributed over 
a vast territoiy varying in climate, hydrography, geology, fauna, and 
flora, their industrial and esthetic arts can hardly be regarded as dis- 
tiiujtive, and were indeed shared by otlier tribes of all neighboring 
stocks. 

Tlie best developed industries were hunting and warfare, though all 
of the tribes subsisted in part on fruits, nuts, berries, tubers, grains, 
and other vegetal products, largely wild, though sometiines jjlanted 
and even cultivated in rude fashion. The southwestern tril>es, and to 
some extent all of the prairie denizens and probably the eastern rem- 
nant, grew maize, beans. pumi)kiiis, melons, squashes, sunflowers, and 
tobacco, tlioiigh their agricultuie seems always to have been subordi- 
nated to the chase, .\boriginally, they appear to have had no domes- 
tic animals except dogs, which, according to Carver — one of tlie first 
white men seen by tiie i)rairie tribes, — were kept for tlieir flesh, which 
was eaten ceremonially,' and for use iu the chase.* According to 

Hip. cit.p. 278. 

*Op. cit.. p. 445. Ciirversays. "The dog^i omplnvod by the Indinns in liitnting app(>Artol»e all of the 
same 8i>etiL'8; they carry their ears erect, and greatly reaeiubU* a wolf alioiit the heail. They are 
exceedingly tisefiil to them in their huntint; excursions and will jitlaek the liereewt t)f the cann' they 
arc in ]>urHiiit <if. They are also remarkable for their tidelity to iheir inastert*, but being ill tetl by 
theiu are very troublesome iu their huts or tents." 



M^«EEj IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS 171 

Lewis and Clark (1S04-18(M>), they were used for burden and draff;' 
according to the naturalists accompanying Long's expedition (ISlD-lMi), 
for flesh (eaten ceremonially and on ordinary occasions), draft, l)ur- 
den, and the chase,- and according to Prince Maximilian, for food and 
draft,^ all these functions indicating long familiarity with the canines. 
Catliu, too, found ^' dog's meat . . . the most honorable food that 
can be i)resented to a stranger-/' it was eaten ceremonially and on 
important occasions.^ Moreover, the terms used for the dog and his 
liarness are ancient and even archaic, and some of the most important 
ceremonials were connected with this animal,'^ implying long-continued 
association. Casual references indicate that some of the tribes lived 
in mutual tolerance with several birds^' and mammals not yet domes- 
ticated (indeed the buffalo may be said to have been in this condition), 
so that the people were at the threshold of zoocidture. 

The chief implements and weapons were of stone, wood, bone, horn, 
and antler. According to Carver, the '' ^adowessie " were skillful bow- 
men, using also the "casse-tete''' or warclub, and a iiint scalping- 
kuife. Catlin was impressed with the shortness of the bows used 
by the prairie tribes, though among the southwestern tribes they were 
longer. Many of the Siouan Indians used the lance, javelin, or spear. 
The domestic utensils were scant and sim^ile, as became wanderers 
and fighters, wood being the common material, though crude pottery 

^Couea, "History of the Expedition," op. cit.. vol. i, p. 140. A note adds, "The dogs are not large, 
much resemble a wolf, and will haul about 70 pounds each." 

"Narrative of an Expedition totheSourceof St. Peter's River . . . under the Command of Stephen 
H. Long, U. S. T. E., by William H. Keating; London, 1825, vol. i, p. 451: vol. ii, p.44. et al. Account 
of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains . . . under the Command of Major S. H. 
Long. U. S. T. E., by Edwin James : London. 1823, vol. i, pp. 155, 182. et ah 

Say remarks (James, loc. cit., p. 155) of the coyote (?), " This animal ... is probably tbe origi- 
nal of the domestic dog, eo common in the villages of the Indiana of this region [about Council Blutt's 
and Omaha], some of the varieties of which still retain much of the habit and manners of thia 
species." James saya (loc. cit., voL li. p. 13). "The dogs of the Konzas are generally of a mixed breed, 
between our dogs with pendent ears and the native dogs, whose cars are universally erect. The 
Indians of this nation seek every opportunity to cross the breed. These mongrel dogs are less com- 
mon with the Omawhaws, while the dogs of the Pawnees generally have preserved their original 
form." 

^Travels in the Interior of North America; London, 1843. The Prince adds, "In shape they diflFer 
very little from the wolf, and are equally large and strong. Some are of the real wolf color; others 
are black, white, or spotted with black and white, and differing only by the tail being rather more 
turned up. Tbeir voice is not a proper barking, but a howl like that of the wolf, and they partly 
descend from wolves, which approach the Indian huts, even in the daytime, and mix with the dogs" 
(cf. p. 203 et al.). Writing at the Mandan village, he says, "The Mandansaud Uanitaries have not, by 
any means, so many dogs as the Asainiboin, Crows, and Blackfeet. They are rarely of true wolt 
color, but genei'ally black or white, or else resemble the wolf, but here they are more like the prairie 
wolf {Canislatrans}. We likewise found among these animals a brown race, descended from European 
pointers; hence the genuine bark of the dog is more frequently heard here, whereas among the western 
nations they only howl. The Indian dogs are worked very hard, have hard blows and hard fare; in 
fact, they are treated just as this fine animal is treated among the Esquimaux" (p. 345). 

^"Letters and Notes," etc, vol. I, j). 14; cf. p. 230 et al. He speaks (p. 201) of the Minitarf canines 
as "semiloup dogs and whelps. " 

'Keating's "Narrative," op. cit., vol. I!, p. 452; James' "Account," op. cit,, vol. I. p. 127 et al. 

sAccordiug to Prince Maximilian, both the Mandan and Minitari kei)t owls in their lodges and 
regarded them as soothsayers ("Travels." op. cit., pp. 383, 403), and tbe eagle was apparently tolerated 
for the sake of his feathers. 

'"Cassa Tate, the antient tomahawk " on the plate illustrating the objeets (" Travels." op. cit., pi. 
4, p. 298). 



172 THE .SIOUAN INDIANS [eth.asn. 13 

and basketry were maimfactured, together with bags and bottles of 
skins or aiiinial iutestiues. Ceremonial objects were common, the 
most conspicuous being the calumet, carved out of the sacied pipe- 
stone or catlinite quarried for many generations in the midst of tlie 
Siouan territory. Frequently the pipes were fasliioned in the form of 
tomahawks, when they carried a double symbolic sigiiiticance. stand- 
ing alike for peace and war, and thus expressing well the dominant 
idea of the Siouan mind. Tobacco and kinnikiuic (a mixture of tobacco 
with shredded bark, leaves, etc') were smoked. 

Aboriginally the Siouan apparel was scanty, commonly coinijrising 
breecliclout, moccasins, leggings, and robe, and consisted chielly of 
dressed skins, though several of the tribes made simple fabrics of bast, 
rushes, and other vegetal substances. Fur robes and rush mats com- 
monly served for bedding, some of the tribes using rude bedsteads. 
The buffalo hunting prairie tribes depended largely for apparel, bed- 
ding, and liabitations, as well as for food, on the great beast to whose 
comings and goings their movements were adjusted. Like other 
Indians, the Siouan hunters and their consorts quickly availed them- 
selves of the white man's stutfs, as well as his metal imi)lements, and 
the ])rimitive dress was soon modified. 

The woodland habitations were chiefly tent-shai)e structures of sap 
lings covered with bark, rush mats, skins, or bushes: the ]irairie habi- 
tations were mainly earth lodges for winter and buffalo-skin tipis for 
stimnier. Among many of the tribes these domiciles, simple as they 
were, were constructed in accordance with an elaborate plan controlled 
by ritual. According to Morgan, the framework of the aboriginal 
Dakota house consisted of l.'i poles;- and Dorsey describes the syste- 
matic groujjing of the tipis belonging to different gentes and tribes. 
Sudatories were characteristic in most of the tribes, menstrual lodges 
were common, and most of the more sedentary tribes had council 
houses or other communal structures. The Siouan domiciles were thus 
adapted with remarkable closeness to the daily habits and environ- 
ment of the tribesmen, while at the same time they reflected the com- 
l>lex social organization growing out of their jirescriptorial status and 
militant disposition. 

Most of the Siouan men. wouieu. and children were fine swimmers, 
though they tlid not comiiare well with neighboring tribes as makers 
and managers of water craft. Tlio Dakota women made coracles of 
buffalo hides, in which they transjxirted themselves and their house- 
lioldry, but the use of these and other craft .seems to have been regarded 
as little better than a feminine weakness. Other tribes were better 
boatmen; for the Siouan Indian generally preferred land travel to 
journeying by water, and avoided tlie burden of vehicles by which his 



'Deacrihcd by Coues." History of the Expedition vmdcr tliL' Coiiiiuaiid of Lewis and Ciarlt. " 1893, 
vol. I. p. 139. note. 
»" IIoiisos and Iloueo-lift' of the American Aborigines," Cont. X. A. Etb.. vol. iv. 18*1. p. 114. 



wcQEE) THE BUFFALO AND THE HORSE 173 

ever-varying' nioveiueiits in pursuit of i;aine(ir in waylaying and evatl- 
ing enemies would have been limited and handicapped. 

There are many indications and .some suggestive evidences that the 
chief arts and certain instituti(msand beliefs, as well as the geographic 
distribution, of the principal Siouan tribes were determined by a single 
conspicuous feature in their environment — the buffalo. As Riggs, 
Hale, and Dorsey have demonstrated, the original home of the Siouan 
stock lay on the eastern sloi)e of the Appalachian mountains, stretch- 
ing down over the Piedmont and ( 'oastplain provinces to the shores of 
the Atlantic between the Potomac and the Savannah. As shown by 
Allen, thebuffiilo, " prior to the year 1800," spread eastward across the 
Appalachians' and into the priscan territory of the Siouan tribes. As 
suggested by Slialer, the presence of this j'touderous and peaceful 
animal n)aterially aflected the vocations of the Indians, tending to dis- 
courage agriculture and encourage the chase: and it can hardly be 
doubted that the bison was the bridge that carried the ancestors of the 
western tribes from the crest of the Alleglienies to the Cotean des 
Prairies and enabled them to disjjerse so widely over the plains beyond. 
Certainly the toothsome flesh and useful skins must have attracted 
the valiant huntsmen among the Ajjpalachiaus; certainly the feral 
herds must have become constantly larger and more numerous west- 
ward, thus tempting the pursuers down the waterways toward the 
great river; certainly the vast herds beyond the Mississii)pi gave 
stronger incentives and richer rewards than the hunters of big game 
found elsewhere ; and certainly when the ])rairie tribes were discovered, 
the men and animals lived in constant interaction, and many of the 
hunters acted and thought only as they were moved by their easy prey. 
As the Spanish horse spread northward over the Llano Estacado and 
overflowed across the mountains trom the plains of the Cayuse, the 
Dakota and other tribes found a new means of conquest over the 
herds, and entered on a career so facile that they increased and multi- 
plied despite strife and imported disease. 

The horse was acquired by the prairie tribes toward the end of the 
last century. Carver (17GG-1768) describes the methods of hunting 
among the "Naudowessie'' without referring to the horse,- though he 
gives their name for the animal in his vocabulary,^ and describes their 
mode of warfare with "Indians that inhabit still farther to the west- 
ward a country which extends to tlu; South Sea," having "great plenty 
of horses."^ Lewis and Clark (ISOJ— 1806) mention that the "Sioux of 
the Teton tribe . . . frequently make excursions to steal horses" 
from the Mandan,'' and make other references indicating that the horse 

' " The American Bisons. Livinj; and Extinct, " by J. A. Allen ,- ilemoirs of the Geol. Survey of Ken- 
tucky, vol. I, pt. ii, 1876, map; also pp. 55, 72-101, et al. 

•Oj). cit., p. 283 et 86(1. 

!'Ibi(l., p. 435. 

'Ibid., p. 294. 

^''History of the E.^pedition under the Coraraiind of Lewis and Clark," etc, by Elliott Couea, 1893 
vol. I, p. 175. It is noted that in winter tlic Mandan kept their horses in their lodges at night, and, 
fed them on Cottonwood branches. Ibid., pp. 220, 233, et al. 



174 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [fth. ans. 15 

was in fairly cdiuinoii use among some of the Siouan tribes, thoii{;li the 
auinial was ''contiiied principally to the nations inhabiting the ^reat 
plains of the Columbia,"' anil dogs were still used for burden and 
draft.- Grinnell learned from an aged Indian that horses came into 
the hands of the neighboring IMegan (Algonijuian) about 1804-1800.' 
Long's naturalists found the horse, ass, and nude in use among the 
Kansa and other tribes/ and described the mode of capture of wild 
horses by the Osage;'' yet when, two-thirds of a ceutury after Carver, 
Catlin (18.>2-is;i9) and Prince ^Maximilian (18.53^34) visited the Siouan 
territory, they found the horse establislied and in common use in the 
chase and in war.'' It is significant that the Dakota word for horse 
(.suk-taij'-ka or suij-ka'-wakaij) is composed of the word for dog 
(sni)'-ka), with an atlix indicating greatness, sacredness, or mystery, 
so that the horse is literally '-great mysterious dog,'" or ''ancient sacred 
dog," and that several terms for harness and other appurtenances cor- 
respond witii those used for the gear of the dog when tised as a draft 
animal." This terminology corr()i)orates the direct evidence that the 
dog was domesticated by the Siouan aborigines long before the advent 
of the horse. 

Among the Sionan tribes, as among other Indians, amusements 
absorbed a considerable part of the time and energy of the old and 
young of both sexes. Among the young, the gambols, races, and 
other sports were chiefly or wholly diversional, and commonly mim- 
icked the avocations of the adults. The girls jilayed at the building 
and care of houses and were absorbed in dolls, wliile the boys played 
at archery, foot racing, and mimic hunting, which soo7i grew into 
the actual chase of small birds and animals. Some of the sjjorts of the 
elders were unorganized diversions, leaping, racing, wrestling, and 
other spontaneous expressions of exuberance. Certain diversions were 
controlled by more jx'rsistent motive, as when the idle warrior occui)ied 
liis leisure in meaningless ornamentation of his garment or tii)i, or 
spent hours of leisure in esthetic modification of his weai)on or cere- 
monial badge, and to this purjjoseless activity, which engendered 
design with its own progress, the incii)ient graphic art of the tribes 
was largely due. The more important and characteristic s])orts were 
organized and interwoven with social organization and belief so as 
commonly to take the form of elaborate cei'euionial, in which dancing, 
feasting, fasting, symbolic painting, song, and sacrifice played impor- 
tant i)arts, and these organized s])orts were largely fiducial. To many 



> Coucs, Exjiedition of I.ewis und Clark, vol. iii. \i. 839. 

'Ibid., vol. I, p. 140. 

^•'TIic Story of the Indian. " 1895, p. 237. 

* Jnmc»' "Account," op. oit., vol. I, pp. 126, 148; vol. ii. p. 12 et al. 

•Il.id, vol. Ill, p. 107. 

*"Lott*T8 and Xot«s," op. cit., vol. i, pp. 142 (wbero the manner of laesoing wild horaca is men- 
tioned), p. 231 et al. ; "Travels," op. oit., p. 149 et al. (The Crow were said to have between 9,000 and 
10.000 head. p. 174.) 

'Kentinj: in I.ons's Expedition, op. clt., vol. II, appendix, p. 152. Riggs' "Bakola- English Diction- 
ary," Cont. X. A. Elh., vol. vii, 1890. 



MCGEE] CEREMONIES GAMES MUSIC 175 

of the early observers the observauces were iiotliiiig more than iiieau- 
ingless muuimeries; to some they were sacrilegious, toothers sortile- 
gious; to the more careful students, like Carver, whose notes are of 
especial value by reason of the author's clear insight into the Indian 
character, they were invocations, expiations, propitiations, expressing 
profound and overpowering devotion. Carver says of the "Xaudo- 
wessie," "They usually dance either before or after every meal; and 
by this cheerfulness, probably, render the Great Spirit, to whom they 
consider themselves as indebted for every good, a more acceptable 
sacrifice than a formal and unanimated thanksgiving;''' and he pro- 
ceeds to describe the informal dances as well as the more formal cere- 
monials preparatory to joining in the chase or setting out on the 
warpath. The ceremonial observances of the Siouau tribes were not 
different in kind from those of neighboring contemporaries, yet some 
of them were developed in remarkable degree — for example, the bloody 
rites by which youths were raised to the rank of warriors in some of 
the prairie tribes were without parallel in severity among the aborig- 
ines of America, or even among the known primitive peoples of the 
world. So the sports of the Siouau Indians were both diversional and 
divinatory, and the latter were highly organized in a manner reflecting 
the environment of the tribes, their culture status, their belief, and 
especially their disposition toward bloodshed; for their most charac- 
teristic ceremonials were connected, genetically if not immediately, 
with warfare and the chase. 

Among many of the Siouan tribes, games of chance were played 
habitually and with great avidity, both men and women becoming so 
absorbed as to forget avocations and food, mothers even neglecting 
their children; for, as among other primitive peoples, the charm of 
hazard was greater than among the enlightened. The games were not 
specially distinctive. aTid were less widely differentiated than in certain 
other Indian stocks. The sport or game of chungke stood high in favor 
among the young men in many of the tribes, and was played as a game 
partly of chance, partly of skill; but dice games (played with plum 
stones among the southwestern prairie tribes) were generally iireferred, 
especially by the women, children, and older men. The games were 
partly, sometimes wholly, diversional, but generally they were in large 
part divinatory, and thus reflected the hazardous occupations and low 
culture-status of the people. One of the evils resulting from the advent 
of the whites was the introduction of new games of chance wliicli tended 
further to pervert the simple Siouan mind; but in time the evil brought 
its own remedy, for association with white gamblers taught the ingenu- 
ous sortilegers that there is nothing divine or sacred about the gaming 
table or the conduct of its votaries. 

The primitive Siouan music was limited to the cliant and rather 
simple vocal melody, accompanied by rattle, drum, and flute, the drum 
among the northwestern tribes being a skin bottle or bag of water. 



ITfi THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth.aicis 

Tlie music of tlie Oiiialia and some other tribes has been most appre- 
ciatively studied by Miss Fletcher, and her memoir ranks aiiiony the 
Indian classics.' In {general the Siouan music was tyi)ical for the 
aboriginal stocks of the northern interior. Its dominant feature was 
rhythm, by which the dance was controlled, though melody was inchoate, 
while harmony was not yet develojjcd. 

The germ of painting was revealed in the calendars and the seed of 
sculpture in the carvings of the Siouan Indians. The pictographic 
paintings comprised not only recognizable but even vigorous represen- 
tations of men and animals, depicted in form and color tliough without 
perspective, while the calumet of catliuite was sometimes chiseled into 
striking verisimilitude of human and animal forms in miniature. To 
the collector these representations suggest fairly developed art. though 
to the Indian they were mainly, if not wholly, symbolic; for everything 
indicates that the primitive artisan had not yet broken the shackles of 
fetichistic symbolism, and had little conception of artistic portrayal for 
its own sake. 

INSTITiriDNS 

Among civili/.eil jieoijU's, institutions are crystallized in statutes 
about nuclei of common law or custom: ann)ng peo]iles in the prescrip- 
torial (-nlture-stage statutes are unborn, and \ai-ions mnemonic devices 
are employed for hxing and perpetuating institutions; and, as is usual 
in this stage, the devices involve associations which appear to be 
essentially arbitrary at the outset, though they tend to become natural 
through the survival of the fittest. A favorite device for perpetuating 
institutions among the primitive peoples of many districts on dittereut 
continents is tlie taboo, or prohibition, which is commonly fiducial but 
is often of generiil ai)i)li<Mtion. This device finds its best development 
in the earlier stages in the development of belief, and is normally con- 
nected with totemism. Another device, which is remarkably wide- 
spread, as .shown by Morgan, is kinship nomenclature. This device rests 
on a natural and easily ascertained basis, though its ai)i)lications are 
arbitrary and vary widely from tribe to tribe ami from culture-status 
to (nilturcstatus. A third device, which found inudi favor among the 
Ameri(^an aborigines and among some other primitive peoples, may be 
called ordinaiion, or the arrangement of individuals and groups classi- 
fied from the prescri]>torial point of view of Self. Here, and Now. with 
respect to each other or to some dominant personage or group. This 
device seems to have grown out of the kin name system, in which the 
Ego is the basis from which relation is reckoned. It tends to develop 
into fetlerate organization on the one hand or into caste on the other 
hand, according to the attendant conditions.- There are various other 

i"A study of Omaha Indian Masic, by Alice C. Fletcher ■ . aide<l by Franci.i La Flesche, 
with A report on the slrnrtural peculiarities of the niusic, by John Comfort Fillmore. A. U. ;" Arch, 
and Elb. papcre of the Peabody Museum, vol. I. >"o. 5, 1893, pp. i-vi : 7-1 Si (=231-382). 

'Ordiiiation.iiH the term is here used, eomprebends recinientation as defined by Powell, yet relates 
csperially to the nietluxl of reekoniug from the constantly recofinizcd but ever varying st.imlpoint of 
preseriptorial culture. 



McoEEj SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 177 

devices for fixing and perpetuating institutions or for expressing the 
laws embodied tlierein. Some of these are connected witli thaumaturgy 
and sbamanism, some are connected with tlie powers of nature, and 
the several devices overlap and interlace in puzzling fashion. 

Among the Sionan Indians the devices of taboo, kinnames, and ordi- 
nation are found in such rehition as to throw some light on the growth 
of primitive institutions. Wliile tlie.v blend and are measurably 
involved with thaumaturgic devices, there are indications that in a 
general way the three devices stand for stages in tlie development of 
law. Among the best known tribes tlie taboo pertained to the clan, 
and was used (in a much more limited way than among some other 
peoples) to connnenmrate and perpetuate the clan organization; kin- 
names, which were partly natural and thus normal to the clan organiza- 
tion, and at the same time partly artittcial and thus characteristic of 
gentile organization, served to commemorate and perpetuate not only 
the fanuly relations but the relations of the constituent elements of 
the tribe; while the ordination expressed in the camping circle, in the 
phratries, in the ceremonials, and in many other ways, served to com- 
memorate intertribal as well as intergentile relations, and thus to pro- 
mote peace and harmonious action. It is significant that the taboo 
was less potent among the Siouan Indians than among some other 
stocks, and that among some tribes it has not been found; and it is 
especially significant that in some instances the taboo was apparently 
inversely related to kin-naming and ordination, as among the Biloxi, 
where the taboo is exceptionally weak and kin naming exceptionally 
strong, and among the Dakota, where the system of ordinatitui attained 
perhaps its highest American development in domiciliary arrangement, 
while the taboo was limited in function; for the relations indicate that 
the taboo was archaic or even vestigial. It is noteworthy also that 
among most of the Siouan tribes the kin name system was less elaborate 
than in many other stocks, while the system of ordination is so elabo- 
rate as to constitute one of the leading characteristics of the stock. 

At the time of the discovery, most of the Siouan tribes had apparently 
passed into gentile organization, though vestiges of clan organization 
were found — e. g., among the best-known tribes the man was the head 
of the family, though the tipi usually belonged to the woman. Thus, as 
defined by institutions, the stock was just above savagery and Just 
within the lower stages of barbarism. Accordingly the governmental 
functions were hereditary in the male line, yet the law of heredity was 
subject to modification or suspension at the will of the group, commonly 
at the instance of rebels or usurpers of marked prowess or shrewdness. 
The property regulations were definite and strictly observed ; as among 
other barbarous peoples, the land was common to the tribe or other group 
occupying if, yet was defended against alien invasion ; the ownership 
of movable property was a combination of communalism and individu- 
alism delicately adjusted to the needs and habits of the several tribes — 
13 ETii V2 



178 THE SIOUAX INDIANS 



in general, evanescent property, such as food and fuel, was shared in 
comiiioii (subject to carefully regulated individual claims), while perma- 
nent ])roperty, such as tipis, dogs, api)arel, weai)oiis, etc, was held by 
individuals. As among other tribes, the more strictly i)ersoual property 
was usually dcstrojx'd on the death of the owner, though the real reason 
for the custom — the prevention of dispute — was shrouded in a mantle 
of mysticism. 

Although of ])rimary iinijoitance in shaping the career of the Siouan 
tribes, the marital institutions of the stock were not sjiecially distinctive. 
Marriage was usually et^ected by negotiation through jiareuts or elders; 
among some of the tribes the bride was purchased, while among others 
there was an interchange of jjresents. Polygyny was common; in sev- 
eral of the tribes the bride's sisters became subordinate wives of the 
husband. The regulations i-oncerning divorce and the ])unishment of 
infidelity were sonu'what variable among the different tribes, some of 
whom furnished temporary wives to distinguished visitors, (jcnerally 
there were sanctions for marriage by elopement or individual choice. In 
every tribe, so far as known, gentile exogamy i)revailed — i. e., marriage 
in the gens was forbidden, under j)ain of ostracism or still heavier pen- 
alty, while the gentes intermarried among one another; in some cases 
intermarriage between certain tribes was regarded with special favor. 
There seems to have been no system of marriage by cai)ture, though 
captive women were usually espoused by the successful tribesmen, and 
girls were sometimes abducted. In general it would appear that inter- 
gentile and intertribal marriage was i)racticcd and san<-tioned by the 
sages, and that it tende<l toward harmony and federation, and thus 
contributed unich toward the increase and diffusion of the great Siouan 
stock. 

As set forth in some detail by Dorsey, the ordination of the Siouan 
tribes extended beyond the hierarchic organization into families, sub- 
gentes, gentes, tribes, and confederacies; there were also ])hratries, 
sometimes (perhaps typically) arranged in pairs: there were societies 
or associations established on social or fiducial bases; there was a gen- 
eral arrangement or classification of each group on a military basis, 
as into soldiers and two or more classes of noucoinbatants, etc. 
Among the Siouan peoples, too, the individual brotherhood of the 
David-.Ionathan or Damon- Pythias tyjie was characteristically devel- 
oiu'd. Thus the corporate institutions were interwoven and sujjer- 
imposed in a manner nearly as c()m])lex as that Ibiiiul in the national, 
state, municipal, and minor institutions of civilization: yet the ordi- 
nation jireserved by means of tiie camping circle, the kinship system, 
the simple series of taboos, and the elaborate symbolism was aiii)ar- 
ently so complete as to meet every social and governmental demand. 



iiKi.iicrs 

TlIK DKVKLUPMKNT <1K X1VT1I01.IU.Y 



As explained by Powell, philosophies and beliefs may be seriated in 
four stages: The first stage is hecastotheism; in this stage extra- 
natural or mysterious potencies are imputed to objects both animate 



MCGEE] PHILOSOPHIES AND BELIEFS 17'.) 

and iiiiiniinate. The second stage is zootheism; within it the powers 
of animate forms are exaggerated and amplified into tlie reahn of tlie 
supernal, and certain auinials are deified. The third stage is that of 
]jliysitheism, in which the agencies of nature are personified and 
exalted unto omnipotence. The fourth stage is that of psychotheisiii, 
which includes the doiuain of spiritual concei)t. In general the devel- 
opment of belief coincides with the growth of abstraction; yet it is to 
be remembered that this growth represents increase in definiteness of 
the abstract concepts rather than augmentation in iuiml)ers and kinds 
of subjective impressions, i. e., the advance is in quality rather than 
in quantity; indeed, it would almost appear that the vague and indefi- 
nite abstraction of hecastotheisin is more pervasive and prevalent than 
the clearer abstraction of higher stages. Appreciation of the funda- 
mental characteristics of belief is essential to even the most general 
iiuderstaiidmg of the Indian mythology and philosophy, and even after 
careful study it is difficult for thinkers trained in the higher methods 
of thought to understand the crude and confused ideation of the 
primitive thinker. 

In hecastotheism the believer finds mysterious properties and poten- 
cies everywhere. To his mind every object is endued with occult 
power, moved by a vague volition, actuated by shadowy motive rang- 
ing capriciously from malevolence to benevolence; in his lax estima- 
tion some objects are more potent or more mysterious than others, the 
strong, the sharp, the hard, and the swift-moving rising superior to 
the feeble, the dull, the soft, and the slow. Commonly he singles out 
some special object as his personal, family, or tribal mystery-symbol 
or fetich, the object usually representing that which is most feared or 
woi'st hated among his surroundings. Vaguely realizing from the 
memory of accidents or unforeseen events that he is depeixlent on his 
surroundings, he invests every feature of his environment with a 
capricious humor reflecting his own disposition, and gives to each and 
all a subtlety and inscrutability corresponding to his exalted estima- 
tion of his own craft in the chase and war; and, conceiving himself to 
live and move only at the mercy of his multitudinous associates, he 
becomes a fatalist — kismet is his watchword, and he meets defeat and 
death with resignation, just as he goes to victory with complacence; 
for so it was ordained. 

Zootheism is the oftspriug of hecastotheism. As the iirimitive 
believer assigns special potency or mystery to the strong and the swift, 
he gradually comes to give exceptional rank to self-moving animals; 
as his experience of the strength, alertness, swiftness, and courage of 
his animate enemy or prey increases, these animals are invested with 
successively higher and higher attributes, each reflecting the mental 
operations of the mystical huntsman, and in time the animals with 
which the primitive believers are most intimately associated come to be 
regarded as tutelary daimons of supernatural power and intelligence. 
At first the animals, like the uiiditt'erentiated things of hecastotheism, 



18*) THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. ass. 13 

are rej^arded iu fear or awe by reason of their strength and ferocity, 
and this regard grows into an incipient worsliip in the form of sacrifice 
or other ceremonial ; meanwliile, inanimate things, and m due season 
rare and unimportant animals, are neglected, and a half dozen, a dozen, 
or a score of the well-known animals are exalted into a hierarchy of 
petty gods, headed by the strongest like the bear, the swiftest like the 
deer, the most majestic like the eagle, the most cunning like the fox 
or coyote, or the most deadly like the rattlesnake. Commonly the 
arts and the skill of the mystical huntsman iminove from youth to 
adolescence and from generation to genciation, so that the later ani- 
mals aiJjiear to be easier snared or slain than the earlier; moreover, the 
accounts of conflicts between men and animals grow by repetition 
and are gilded by imagination as memory grows dim; and for these 
and other reasons the notion grows up that the ancient animals were 
.stronger, swifter, slier, statelier, deadlier than their modern representa- 
tives, and the hierarchy of petty gods is exalted into an omnipotent 
thearchy. Eventuallj% in the most highly developed zootheistic sys- 
tems, the leading beast-god is regarded as the en ator of the lesser 
deities of the earth, sun, and sky, of the mythic under- world and its 
real counterpart the ground or mid-world, as well as the visionary 
u]iper-world, of men, and of the ignoble animals ; sometimes the mo.st ex- 
alted beast-god is worshiped esj)ecially by the great man or leading class 
and incidentally by all, while other men and grou])S choose the lesser 
beast-gods, according to their rank, for special worship. In hecasto- 
theism the potencies revered or worshii)ed are polymorphic, while their 
attributes reflect the mental operations of the believers; in zootheism 
the deities worshii)ed are zoomorphic, and their attributes continue to 
reflect the human mind. 

Phy.sitheism, in its turn, si)rings from zootheism. Through contem- 
plation of the strong the idea of strength arises, and a means is found 
for bringing the bear into analogy with thunder, with the sun, or with 
the avalanche bearing mountain ; through contemplation of the swift the 
concept of swiftness is engendered, and comparison of the deer with 
the wind or rushing river is made easy; through contemi)lation of the 
deadly stroke of the rattlesnake the notion of death-dealing ])ower 
assumes shape, and conniari.son of the snake bite and the lightning 
stroke is made possible; and in every case it is inevitably perceived 
that the agency is stronger, swifter, deadlier than the animal. At 
tirst the agency is not abstracted or dissociated from the jiarent 
zootheistic concept, and the sun is the mightiest animal as among many 
l)eoi)les, the thunder is the voice of the bear as among different wood- 
land tribes or the flapping of the wings of the great aiu'ient eagle as 
among the Dakota and (|'egiha, while lightning is the great serpent of 
the sky as among the Zuili. Subse(iuently the zoic concept fades, and 
the constant association of human intellectual qualities engenders an 
anthropic concept, when the sun becomes an anthro])omori)hic deity 
(perhaps bearing a dazzling mask, as among tin- Zunij, and thunder is 



MC'EK] PHILOSOPHIES AND BELIEFS 1!^1 

tlie nimhling of quoits pitclieil by the shades of old-tiiiie giants, as 
among different American tribes. Eventually all tlie leading agencies 
(if nature are personified in antbropic form, and retaiii tbe Imman attri- 
butes of caprice, love, and bate wbicb are found in tbe minds of tbe 
believers. 

Psycbotbeism is bornof pbysitbeism as tbe antbroponiorpbic element 
in tbe concept of natural agencj- gradually fades; but since none of 
tbe aborigines of tbe I'uited States bad passed into tbe bigber stage, 
tbe mode of transition does not require consideration. 

It is to lie borne in mind tliat tbrougbout tbe course of development 
of belief, from tbe beginning of becastotbeism into tbe borderland of 
psycbotbeism, tbe dominant cbaracteristicis tbe vague notion of mys- 
tery. At tirst tbe mystery pervades alltbings and extends in all direc- 
tions, representing an indefinite ideal world, wbicb is tbe counterpart 
of tbe real world with the addition of human (pialities. (Tradually the 
mystery segregates, deepening with respect to animals and disappearing 
with respect to inanimate things; and at length tbe slowly changing 
mysteries shape themselves into semiabstractions having a strong 
anthropic cast, while tbe remainder of the earth and tbe things thereof 
gradually become real, though they remain under tbe spell and domin- 
ion of tbe mysterious. Thus at every stage the primitive believer is a 
mystic — a fatalist in one stage, a beast worshiper in another, a thau- 
maturgist in a third, yet ever and tirst of all a mystic. It is also to be 
borne in mind (and tbe more firmly because of a widespread misappre- 
hension) that the primitive believer, up to tbe highest stiige attained 
by the North American Indian, is not a psychotheist, much less a mon- 
otheist. His '' Great Spirit" is simply a great mystery, jierhaps vaguely 
anthropomorphic, ofteuer zoomorpbic, yet not a spirit, wbicb be is 
unable to conceive save by reflection of tbe white man's conceijt and 
inquiry; and his departed spirit is but a shade, much like that of the 
ancient Greeks, the associate and often tbe inferior of animal shades. 

While tbe four stages in development of belief are fundamentally 
distinct, they nevertheless overlap in such manner as apparently, and 
in a measure really, to coexist and blend. Culture progress is slow. 
In biotic development tbe effect of beneficial modification is felt imme- 
diately, and tbe modified organs or organisms are stimulated and 
strengthened cumulatively, while the unmodified are enfeebled and 
paralyzed cunuilatively through inactivity and quickly pass toward 
atrophy and extinction. Conversely in demotic develoiiment, which 
is characterized by the persistence of the organisms and by tbe elimi- 
nation of tbe bad and tbe preservation of tbe good among (jualities 
only, there is a constant tendency toward retardation of progress; for 
in savagery and barbarism as in <'ivilization, age commonly produces 
conservatism, and at the same time brings responsibility for tbe con- 
duct of old and young, so that modification, howsoever beneficial, is 



182 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [etu. anx. 15 

lut'asiiialily licld iu check, and so that the progress of eacli generation 
buds ill th<! siiringtinie of j-oiith yet is not ])ermitted to fruit until tiie 
winter of old age approaches. Accordingly the mean of deuiotic i)rog- 
ress tends to lag far behind its foremost advances, and modes of 
action and especially of thought change slowly. Thisisesi)ecially true 
of beliefs, which, during each generation, are largely vestigial. So the 
Stages in the evolution of mythohjgic philosophy overlap wulely; there 
is probably no tribe now living among whom zootheism has not yet 
taken root, though hecastotheisni has been found dominant among 
ditterent tribes; there is i)robably no people in the zootheistic stage 
whoare completely divested of hecastotheistic vestiges; and one of the 
curious features of even the most advanced psychotheism is the occa- 
sional outcrop]iing of features inherited from ;ill of the earlier stages. 
Yet it is none tlic less important to discriminate the stages. 

'IiiE SiocAN Mythology 

It was partly through pioneer study of the Siouan Indians that the 
])opular fallacy concerning the aboriginal "Great Spirit*' gained cur- 
ren<;y ; and it was i)artly through the work of Dorsey among the (^"egiha 
and Dakota tribes, lirst as a missionary and afterward as a linguist, 
that the early error was corrected. Among these tribes the creation 
and control of the world and the things thereof are ascribed to 
"wa ka"-da" (the term varying somewhat from tribe to tribe), just as 
among the Algouquian tribes omnipotence was assigned to " ma-ui-do' 
("Manito the flighty" of "Hiawatha"'); yet in(|uiry shows that 
waka"da assumes various forms, and is rather a quality than a definite 
entity. Thus, among many of the tribes the sun is waka"da — not the 
waka"da or « waka"da, but simply waka"da: and among the same 
tribes the moon is waka"da, and so is thunder, lightning, the stars, the 
winds, the cedar, and various other things; even a man, especially a 
shaman, might be waka"da or a waka"da. In addition the term was 
applied to mythic monsters of the earth, air, and waters; according to 
some of the sages the ground or earth, the mythic underworld, the 
ideal upper-world, darkness, etc, were waka"da or waka"das. So, too, 
the fetiches and the ceremonial objects and decorations were waka"da 
among dilferent tribes. Among some of the groups various animals 
and other trees besides the specially waka"da cedar were regarded as 
waka"das; as already noted, the horse, among the prairie tribes, was 
the waka"da dog. In like manner many natural objects and ])laces of 
striking character were considered waka"da. Tims tlic term was 
applied to all sorts of entities and ideas, and was used (with or with- 
out inliectional varnitions) indiscriminately as substantive and adjec- 
tive, and with slight modilii-ation as verb and adverb. .Manifestly a 
term so jjrotean is not susi-eptible of translation into the more highly 
differentiated language of civilization. Manifestly, too, the idea 
expressed by the term is indelinite, and can not justly be rendered into 
''spirit,'' mucli less into "Oreat Spirit;" though it is easy to under- 



McotE] SIGNIFICANCE OF WAKA^'DA 1R3 

staud bow the supcrticial iiKiuiier, domiiuited by (U-liiiite spiritual 
concept, liaiidicapped by niifamibaiity with the Indian tongue, misled by 
iguoranee of the vague ]>resciiptorial ideation, and perhaps deceived 
by crafty native informants or mischievous interpreters, came to adopt 
and j)erpetiiate the erroneous interpretation. The term may be trans- 
lated into ''mystery" perhaps more satisfactorily than into any other 
single English word, yet this rendering is at tlio same time much too 
limited and much too definite. As used by the Siouan Indian, waka"da 
vaguely connotes also "power," "sacred,'' "ancient," "grandeur," 
"animate," "immortal," and other words, yet does not express with 
any degree of fullness and clearness the ideas conveyed by these terms 
singly or collectively — indeed, no English sentence of reasonable length 
can do justice to the aboi'igiual idea expressed by the term waka"da. 

While the beliefs of many of the Siouan tribes are lost through the 
extinction of the tribesmen or transformed through acculturation, it is 
fortunate that a Large body of information concerning the myths and 
ceremonials of several ])rairie tribes has been collected. The recoi'ds 
of Carver, Lewis and Clark, Say, Catlin, and Prince Maximilian are of 
great value when interpreted in the light of modern knowledge. More 
recent researches by Miss Eletcher ' and by Dorsey - are of especial 
value, not only as direct sources of information but as a means of 
interpreting the earlier writings. From these records it appears that, 
in so far as they grasped the theistic concejit, the Siouan Indians were 
polytheists; that their mysteries or deities varied in rank and power; 
that some were good but more were bad, while others combined bad 
and good attributes; that they assumed various forms, actual and 
imaginary; and that their dispositions and motives resembled those 
found among mankind. 

The organization of the vague Siouan thearchy appears to have 
varied from group to group. Among all of the tribes whose beliefs 
are known, the sun Mas an important waka"da, perhaps the leading one 
irotentially, though usually of less immediate consideration than cer- 
tain others, such as thunder, lightning, and the cedar tree; among 
the Osage the sun M'as invoked as "grandfather," and among various 
tribes there were snu ceremonials, some of which are still maintained; 
among the Omaha and Ponka, according to Jliss Fletcher, the mythic 
thunder-bird plays a prominent, perhaps dominant role, and the cedar 
tree or pole is deified as its tangible representative. The moon was 
waka"da among the Osage and the stars among the Omaha and Ponka, 
yet they seem to have occupied subordinate positions; the winds and 
the four quarters were apjiarently given higlier rank ; and, in individual 
cases, the mythic water-monsters or earth-deities seem to have occu- 
pied leading positions. On the whole, it may be safe to consider the 

•Several of tbese are summarized in "The emblematic use of tlio tree iu tbe Dakota group," 
Science, n s., vol iv, 1896, pp. 475-487. 

^XotablyA .Stuily of Siouau Cults," Sev.-nth Aimual lleport of (he Hureaii of Ktbnol.i-j for 
1889-00 (1S94), pp. 351-54-1. 



184 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [etii.ans.15 

siiii as the iSioiiau arch-mystery, with the mythic thunder-bird or 
family of tliuiider bird.s as a sort of mediate link between the mysteries 
and men, jiossessing less power but displaying more aciivity in human 
affairs than the remoter waka^da of the heavens. Under these control- 
ling waka"das, other members of the series were vaguely and variably 
arranged. Somewhere in the lower ranks, sa<'red animals — especially 
sports, such as the white bulfalo cow — were placed, and still lower 
came totems ami shamans, which, according to Dorsey, were reverenced 
rather than worshiped. It is noteworthy that this thearchic arrange- 
ment corresponded in many respects with the hierarchic social organi- 
zation of the stock. 

The Siouan thearchy was invoked and adored liy means of forms 
and ceremonies, as well as through orisons. The set observances were 
highly elaborate; they comprised dancing and chanting, fea.stiug and 
fasting, and in some cases sacritice and torture, the shocking atrocities 
of the Mandan and ^Mmitari rites being especially imiuessive. From 
these great collective devotions the ceremonials graded down through 
war dance and hunting-feast to the terpsichorean grace extolled by 
Carver, and to individual fetich worship. In general the adoration 
e.Ni)icssed lear of the evil rather than love of the good — but this can 
hardly be regarded as a distinctive feature, much less a iieculiar one. 

Some of the mystery jilaces were especially distinctive and note- 
worthy. Foremost among them was the sacrerl jiipestone rpiarry near 
Big Siou.\ river, whence the material for the waka"da calumet was 
obtained; another was the far-famed Minne-waka" of North Dakota, 
not inaptly translated ''Devil's lake;" a third was the mystery-rock or 
medicine-rock of the Maiidan and Ilidatsa near Yellowstone river; and 
there were many others of less importance. About all of these jilaces 
l)ictures()ue legends and myths clustered. 

The Siouan mytlmlogy is especially instiucrive. jiarlly becau.se so 
well recorded, partly because it so clearly reflects the habits and 
customs of the tribesmen and thus gives an indirect reflection of a 
well-marked environment. As among so many i)eoples. the sun is a 
])rominent element : the ice-monsters of the north and the rain-myths 
of the arid region are lacking, and are replaced by the freipient thun- 
der and the trees shaken by the storm-winds; the mythic creatures are 
shaped in the image of the indigenous animals and birds; the mytiis 
center in the local rocks and waters; the mysterious thearchy corre- 
si)onds with the tribal hierarchy, and the attributes ascribed to the 
deities are those characteristic of warriors and hunters. 

Considering the mythology in relation to the stages in develo]»ment 
of mythologic philosophy, it appears that the dominant beliefs, such as 
those pertaining to the sun and the winds, represent a crude iihysithe- 
ism. while ve.stiges of hecastotheism crop out in the object-worship 
and place-worship of the leading tribes and in other features. At the 



»:<-Gi;h) STATUS OF SIOUAN MYTHOLOGY 1S5 

same time well iiuirked zootheistic features are found in the mytliic 
tliunderbirds and in tlie more or less complete deirteatiou of various 
animals, in the exaltation of the horse into the rank of the nij'tliic don 
father, and in the animal forms of the water-monsters and earth lieinjis; 
and the living ai)plication of zootheism is I'ound in the animal fetiches 
and totems. On the whole, it seems .just to assign the Siouan mythol- 
ogy to the ujjper strata of zootheism, just verging on physitheism, with 
vestigial traces of hecastotheism. 

SOMATOLOGY 

The vigorous avocations of the chase and war were reflected in fine 
stature, broad and deep chests, strong and clean limbs, and sound con- 
stitution among the Siouan tribesmen and their consorts. The skin 
was of the usual coppery cast characteristic of the native American; 
the teeth were strong, indicating and befitting a largely carnivorous 
diet, little worn by sandy foods, and seldom mutilated; the hands and 
feet were commonly large and sinewy. The Siouan Indians were 
among those who impressed white pioneers by the parallel placing of 
the feet; for, as among other walkers and runners, who rest sitting and 
lying, the feet assumed the pedestrian attitude of approximate paral- 
lelism rather than the standing attitude of divergence forward. The 
hair was luxuriant, stiff, straight, and more uniformly jet black than 
that of the southerly stocks; it was worn long by the women and most 
of the men, though partly clipped or shaved in some tribes by the war- 
riors as well as the worthless dandies, who, according to Catlin, spent 
more time over their toilets than ever did the grande dame of Paris. 
The women were beardless and the men more or less nearly so; com- 
monly the men plucked out by the roots the scanty hair springing on 
their faces, as did both sexes that on other i>arts of the body. The 
crania were seldom deformed artificially save through cradle accident, 
and while varying considerably in capacity and in the ratio of length to 
width were usually mesocephalic. The facial features were strong, yet 
in no way distinctly unlike those found among neighboring peoples. 

Since the advent of white men the characteristics of the Siouan 
Indians, liketiiose of other tribes, have been somewhat modified, partly 
through infusion of Caucasian blood but chiefly through acculturation. 
With the abandonment of hunting and war and the tardy adoption of 
a slothful, semidependent agriculture, the frame has lost something 
of its stalwart vigor; with the adaptation of the white man's costume 
and the incomplete assimilation of his hygiene, various weaknesses and 
disorders have been developed; and through imitation the ei-stwhile 
luxuriant hair is cropped, and the beard, nmde scanty thi-ough genera- 
tions of extirpation, is commonly cultivated. Although the accul- 
tural condition of the Siouan survivors ranges from the essentially 
lirimitive status of the Asiniboin to the practical civilization of the 
representatives of several tribes, it is fair to consider the stock in a 



1^6 THE SIOUAX INDIANS [eth. ass. 15 

state of tnuisition fnim barbarism to civilization; and many of the 
tribesmen are losinjr tiie characteristics of activity and somatic devcl- 
oi)ment normal to i)rimitive life, while they have not yet assimilated 
the activities and acquired the somatic characteristics normal to peace- 
ful sedentary life. 

Briefly, certain somatic features of the Siouan Indians, past and 
present, may be traced to their causes in custom and exercise of func- 
tion; yet by far the f;reater number of the features are common to the 
American jieople or to all maidiind, and are of ill-understood sisniti- 
cance. The few features of known cause indicate that si)ecial somatic 
characteristics are determined largely or wholly by industrial and other 
arts, which are primarily shaped by en\-iroiimcnt. 

HABITAT 

Excepting the Asiniboin, who are chiefly in Canada, nearly all of 
the Siouan Indians are now gathered on the reservations indicated on 
earlier ])ages, most of these reservations lying within the aboriginal 
territory of the stock. 

At the advent of white men, the Siouan territory was vaguely detined. 
and its limits were found to vary somewhat from exploration to exjtlo- 
ration. This vagueness and variability of hai>itat grew out of the char 
acteristics of the tribesmen. Of all the great stocks south of the 
Arctic, the Siouan was perhajjs least given to agriculture, most influ 
eiiced by hunting, and most addicted to warfare; thus most of the 
tribes were but feebly attached to the soil, and freely followed tiie move- 
ments of the feral fauna as it shifted with climatic vicissitudes or was 
driven from place to ])lace by excessive hunting or by tires set to 
destroy the undergrowth in the interests of the chase: at the same 
time, the borderward tribes were alternately driven and led back and 
forth through strife against the tribes of neighboring stocks. Accord- 
ingly the Siouan habitat can be outlined only in approximate and 
somewhat arbitrary fashion. 

The dilliculty in deflning the priscan home of the Siouan tribes is 
increased by its vast extent and scant peopling, by the length of the 
period intervening between discovery in the east and comi)lcte explora 
tion in the west, and by the internal changes and migrations which 
occurred during this ])eriod. The task of collating the records of 
exploration and jjioneer observation i'oncerning the Siouan and other 
stocks was undertaken by Powell a il'w years ago. and was tbund to i)e 
of great magintiule. It was at length successfully accomplished, and 
the respective areas occu])ied by the several stocks were approximately 
mapi)eil.' 

As shown (in I'oweH's map. tlie chiel' part of tlie Siouan area com- 
prised a single body covering most of the region of the Great jilaius, 

' Sovunlli Aiiiiiial Keport of llif Bureau of Etlinology, for lgii5-*6 ilS'JU, pp. I-UJ, anil ni«p. 



McoEE] FORMER HABITAT 1S7 

stretcliiiig from the Kouky moinitaiiis to tlie ^Mississippi and Irom tlie 
Arkausas-Eed river divide nearly to the Saskatcliewaii. with an arm 
crossing the jNIississippi aud extending to Lake :\[ichigan. In addition 
there were a few outlying bodies, the largest and easternmost bordering 
the Atlantic from Santee river nearly to Capes Lookout and Hatteras, 
and skirting the Appalachian range northward to the Potomac; the 
next considerable area lay on the Gulf coast about Pascagouhi river 
and bay, stretching nearly from the Pearl to the Jlobile; and there were 
one or two unim|)ortaut areas on Ohio river, which were ttunporarily 
occupied by small groups of Siouan Indians during I'ccent times. 

There is little probability that the Siouan habitat, as thus outlined, 
ran far into the prehistoric age. As already noted, the Siouan Indians 
of the plains were undoubtedly descended from the Siouan tribes of the 
east (indeed the Mandan had a tradition to that etfect) ; and reason has 
been given for supposing that the ancestors of the prairie hunters fol- 
lowed the straggling bu&alo through the cisMississippi forests into 
his normal trans-Mississippi habitat and spread over his domain save 
as they were held in check by alien huntsmen, chiefly of the warlike 
Caddoan and Kiowan tribes; and the buffalo itself was a geologically 
recent — indeed essentially post glacial — animal. Little if any definite 
trace of Siouan occui)ancy has been found in the more ancient prehis- 
toric works of the Mississippi valley. On the whole it appears probable 
that the prehistoric development of the Siouan stock and habitat was 
exceptionally rajiid, that the Siouan Indians were a vigorous and virile 
people that arose quickly nnder the stimulus of strong vitality (the 
acquisition of which need not here be considered), coupled with excep- 
tionally favorable opportunity, to a power and glory culminating about 
the time of discovery. 

ORGANIZATION 

The demotic organization of the Siouan peoples, so far as known, is 
set forth in considerable detail in Mr Dorsey's treatises' and in the 
foregoing enumeration of tribes, confederacies, and other linguistic 
groups. 

Like the other aborigines north of Mexico, the Siouan Indians were 
organized on the basis of kinship, and were thus in the stage of tribal 
society. All of the best-known tribes had reached that plane in organ- 
ization characterized by descent in the male line, though many vestiges 
aud some relatively unimportant examples of descent in the female line 
have been discovered. Thns the clan system was obsolescent and the 
gentile system fairly developed; i. e., the people were practically out 
of the stage of savagery and well advanced in the stage of barbarism. 

'Chiefly " Omaha Sireiolojry," Thin! Ami. Rep. Bur. Elli.. for 1881-82 (ISW), pp. 205-370; ",\ study of 
Siouan cults," Eluveutk Ann. Ki-p. Bur. Eth., for 18(!9-90 (1894), pp. 351-544, aud that iiriutid ou tbo 
following pagea. 



188 THE SIOUAN INDIANS Ieth.asn.15 

Confederation for defense and offen.se was fairly defined and was 
strengtlit'iicd by inlerniarriajie between tribes and }ieute.sand the i)robi- 
bition of iuarria;,''e within the gen-s; yet the organization was such as to 
maintain tribal aiitononij" in considerable degree; i.e., the social struc- 
tnre was such as to facilitate nnion in time of war and division into 
small gronps adapted to hunting in times of ])eace. No indication of 
feudalism has been found in the stock. 

Tiie government wa.s autocratic, largely by military leaders sometimes 
(particularly in peace) advised by the elders and i)riests; the leadership 
was determined primarily t)y ability — prowess in war and the chase and 
wisdom in the council, — and was thus hereditary only a little further 
than characteristics were inherited; indeed, excepting slight recogni- 
tion of the divinity that doth hedge about a king, the leaders were 
practically selfchosen, arising gradually to the level determined by 
their abilities. The germ of theocracy was fairly developed, and ajipar- 
ently burgeoned vigorously during each period of peace, oidy to be 
checked and withered iluring the ensuing war when the shamans and 
their craft were forced into the background. 

During recent years, since the tribes began to yield to the doniina- 
tion of the peace-loving whites, the government and election are deter- 
mined chiefly by kinship, as ajipears from Dorsey's researches; yet 
definite traces of Un- nnlitant organization apjiear, and any man can 
win name ami rank in his gens, tribe, or confederacy by bravery or 
generosity. 

The institutional coniu'(!ti(ui between the Siouan tribes of tlie i)lains 
and those of the Atlantic slope and the (lulf coast is completely lost, 
and it is doubtful whether the several braiu-hes have ever been united 
in a single confederation (or "nation," in the language of the ]iioneers). 
at least since the division in the Api)alachian region perhaps five or 
ten centuries ago. Since this division the tril)es have separated widely, 
and some of the bloodiest wars of the region in the historic period have 
been between Siouan tribes; the most extensive union posses.sing the 
slightest claim to federal organization was the great Dakota confed- 
eracy, which was grown into instability and partial disruption: ;ind 
most of the tribal unions and coalitions were of temporary character. 

Although highly elaborate (iierhai)S because of this character), the 
Siouan organization was highly unstable; with every shock of conflict, 
whether intestine or external, some autocrats were displaced or slain; 
and after each important event — great battle, ei)idemic, emigration, or 
destructive flood — new combinations were formed. The undoubtedly 
rapid development of the stock, especially after the i)assage of the 
Mississipi)i, indicates growth by coiniuest and assimilation as well as 
by direct propagation (it is known that the Dakota and perhai)s other 
groups adopted aliens regularly); and. doubtless for this reason in 
part, there was a strong tendeiu-y toward ditferentiatioii ami di(dn>tomy 
in the demotic growth. In some groups the history is too vague to 
indicate this tciulency with certainty; in others the tendency is clear. 



M<'«EE] CONTRAST BETWEEN CERTAIN STOCKS 189 

Perhaps the best example is Ibuiul in the (|'e,ij;ilia, which divided into two 
great branches, tlie stronger of which threw otf minor Ijranehes in the 
Osage and Kansa, and afterward separated into theOnialiaand Tonka, 
■while the feebler l)rancli also ramified widely; and only less notable is 
the example of the Winnebago trnnk, with its three great branches in 
the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri. This strong divergent tendency in itself 
suggests rapid, i)erhaps abnormally rapid, growth in the stock; for it 
outran and jiartially concealed the tendency toward convergence and 
ultimate coalescence which characterizes demotic phenomena. 

The half-dozen eastern stocks occui)ying by far tlie greater part of 
North America contrast strongly with the half-hundred local stocks 
covering the Pacific coast; and none of the strong Atlantic stocks is 
more characteristic, more sliar]dy contrasted with the limited groups of 
the western coast, or better uiiderstood as regards organization and 
development, than the great Siouan stock of the northern interior. 
There is promise that, as the demology of aboriginal America is pushed 
forward, tlie records relating to the Siouan Indians and esi)ecially to 
their structure and institutions will aid in explaining why some stocks 
are limited and others extensive, why large stocks in general charac- 
terize the interior and small stocks the coasts, and why the dominant 
peoples of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were successful in dis- 
placing the preexistent and probably more primitive peoples of the 
Mississippi valley. While the time is not yet rii)e for making final 
answer to these inquiries, it is not premature to suggest a relation 
between a peculiar development of the aboriginal stocks and a peculiar 
geographic conformation: In general the coastward stocks are small, 
indicating a provincial shorelaud habit, yet their population and area 
commonly increase toward those shores indented by deep bays, along 
which maritime and inland industries naturally blend; so (confining 
attention to eastern United States) the extensive Muskhogean stock 
stretches inland from the deep-bayed eastern Gulf coast; and so, too, 
three of the largest stocks on the continent (Algonquian, Inxpioiau, 
Siouan) stretch far into the interior from the still more deei)ly indented 
Atlantic coast. In two of these cases (Iroquoian and Siouan) history 
and tradition indicate expansion and migration from the land of bays 
between Cape Lookout and Cape May, while in the third there are 
similar (thougli perhaps less definite) indications of an inland drift 
from the northern Atlantic bays and along the Laureutiau river and 
lakes. 

HISTORY' 
DAKOTA-ASINIBOIN 

The Dakota are mentioned in the Jesuit delations as early as Ifi.'W-lO; 
the tradition is noted that the ( )Jibwa, on arriving at the Great Lakes in 
Hu early migration from the Atlantic coast, encountered representatives 



'Taken chit'lij from notes .ind niaimsrripta iirepared by Mr Do 



190 THE SIOL'AN IXDIAXS [eth. antc. 15 

of the jireat confederacy of the plaius. In 1641 the French voyageurs 
met the J'otawatonii Indians tiying from a nation called Xadawessi 
(enemies); and the Frenchmen adopted the alien name for the warlike 
prairie triV)es. By 1(158 the Jesuits had learned of the existence of 
thirty Dakota villages west-northwest from the Pntawatomi mission St 
^lichel; and in lOSi) they recorded the presence of tribes a])parently 
rejircsentiiig the Dakota confederacy on the upper Mississippi, near 
the month of the St Croix. According to Croghan's History of Western 
rennsylvaiiia, the "Sue'' Indians occupied the country southwest of 
l-ake vSujierior about 1759; and Dr T. S. Williamson, ''the father of the 
Dakotaniission/' states that the Dakota must have resided about the 
confluence of the Mississippi and the -Minnesota or St Peters for at 
least two hundred years ])rior to ISOO. 

According to traditions collected by Dorsey, the Teton took posses- 
sion of the Ulack Hills region, which had i)reviously been occupied by 
the Trow Indians, long belore white men came; and the Yankton 
and Yanktonnai, which were found on the Missouri by Lewis and Clark, 
were not long removed from the region about Minnesota river. In 1SG2 
the Santee and other Dakota tribes united in a formidable outbreak 
in which more tlian 1.000 whites were massacred or slain in battle. 
Through this outbreak and the consequent governmental action toward 
the control and .settlement of the tribes, much was learned concerning 
the characteristics of the peoi)le, and various Indian leaders became 
known; Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, American 
Horse, and Eveu-his-horse-is-feared (commonly miscalled 3Ian-afraul-t)f- 
his-liorses) were among the famous Dakota chiefs and warrioi's, nota- 
ble representatives of a i)assing race, whose names are prominent in 
the history of the country. Other outbreaks occurred, the last of note 
resulting from the ghost-dance fantasy in 1890-91, which fortunately 
was quickly suppressed. Yet, with slight interru])tions, the Dakota 
tribes in the United States were steadily gathered on reservations. 
Some SOO or more still roam the prairies north of the international 
boundary, but the great body of the confederacy, numl)ering nearly 
28,000, are domiciled on reservations (already noted) in Minnesota, 
Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. 

The separation of the Asiniboin from the Wazikute gens of the 
Y'anktonai ai)|i:irently occurred before the middle of the seventeenth 
century, since the Jesuit relation of 1G58 distinguishes between the 
Pcmalak or Guerriers (undoubtedly the Dakota proper) and the Assini- 
poualak or Guerriers de pierre. The Asiniboin are undoubtedly the 
Essanape (Essanapi or Assinapi) who were next to the Makatapi 
(Dakota) in tlie Walam Olum record of the Lenni-Lenapeor Delaware. 
In Hi80 Hennepin located the Asiniboin northeast of tlie Issati (Isau- 
yati or Santee) who were on Knife lake (]SIinnesota); and the Jesuit 
map of 1081 placed them on Lake of the-Woods, then called "L. Assi- 
uepoualacs.'' La Hontan chiimed to have visited the Eokoro (Arikara) 



McfiEE] ASINIliOIN AND (/T.GIHA HISTORY IDl 

in 1689-90, wben the Essanape were sixty leagues above; and I'eriofs 
Memoire refers to the Asinilioin as a Sioux tribe wliiib, in the sev- 
enteentli c-entnry, seceded from their nation and took refuge anions' the 
rocks of Lake-of-the-Woods. Chauvignerie hicated sonie of the tribe 
south of Onnipigan (Winnipeg) lake in 17.'5G, and they were near Lake- 
of-the- Woods as hite as ITOti, when they were said to have 1.500 war- 
riors. It is well known that in 1829 they occupied a considerable 
territory west of the Dakota and north of Missouri river, witli a p()i)u- 
lation estimated at 8,000; and Drake estimated their number at 10.000 
before the smallpox epidemic of 18;{8, which is said to have carried off 
4,000. From this blow the tribe seems never to have fully recovered, 
and now numbers probably no more than 3.000, mostly in Canada, 
where tliey continue to roam the plains they have occniiied for half a 
century. 

(/EGUIA 

According to tribal traditions collected by 1 >orsey, the ancestors of 
the Omaha, I'onka, Kwapa, Osage, and Kausa were originally one 
l^eople dwelling on Ohio and Wabash rivers, but gradually working 
westward. The flrst separation took place at the mouth of the Ohio, 
when those who went down the Mississippi became the Kwapa or Down- 
stream People, while those who ascended the great river became the 
Omaha or Up-stream People. This separation must have occurred at 
least as early as I.jOO, since it preceded De Soto's discovery of the 
Mississippi. 

The Omaha group (from whom the Osage, Kausa. and I'onka were 
not yet separated) ascended the Mississi))pi to the mouth of the 3Iis- 
souri, where they remained for some time, though war and hunting 
parties explored the country northwestward, and the body of the tribe 
gradually followed these pioneers, though the Osage and Kausa were 
successively left behind. Some of the pioneer parties discovered the 
pipestone quarry, and many traditions cling about this landmark. Sub- 
sequently they were driven across the Big Sioux by the Yankton Indians, 
who then lived toward the confluence of the Minnesota and IMississippi. 
The group gradually ditt'erentiated and tinally divided through the sep- 
aration of the Ponka, probably about the middle of the seventeenth 
century. The Omaha gathered south of the ^Missouri, between the 
mouths of the Platte and Niobrara, while tlie Ponka imshed into the 
Black Kills country. 

The Omaha tril)e remained within the great bend of the Missouri, 
opposite the mouth of the Big Sioux, until white men came. Their 
hunting ground extended westward and southwestward, chiefly north 
of the Platte and along the Elkhorn, to the territory of the Ponka and 
the Pawnee (Caddoan); and in 1760 Carver met their hunting ])arties 
on Minnesota river. Toward the end of the eighteenth century they 
were nearly destroyed by smallpox, their number having been reduced 
from about 3,500 to but little over 300 when they were visited by Lewis 



192 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. ans. 15 

and Clark, tiieii- famous chief Blackbird being one of those carried off 
by the epidemic. Subseiiuently they inci'eased in numbers; in 1800 
their i>oi)ulation was about 1,200. They are now on reservations, mostly 
owning land in severalty, and are citizens of the United States and of 
the state of Nebraska. 

Although the name Ponka did not appear in history before 1700 it 
must have been used for nmny generations earlier, since it is an archaic 
designation connected with the social organization of several tribes and 
the secret societies of the Osage and Kansa, as well as the Ponka. In 
1700 the Ponka were indicated on De I'lsle's maj). though they were 
not then segregated territorially from the Omaha. They, too, suffered 
terribly from the smallpox epidemic, and when met by Ijewis and Clark 
in 1.S04 numbered only about 200. They increased rapidly, leaching 
about 600 in 1S29 and some 800 in 1S42; in 1S71, when they were first 
visited by Dorsej-, they numbered 747. Up to this time the Ponka and 
Dakota were amicable; but a dispute grew out of the cession of lands, 
and the Teton made annual raids on the Ponka until the enforced 
removal of the tribe to Indian Territory took place in 1877. Through 
this warfare, more than a (juarter of the Ponka lost their lives. The 
displacement of this tribe from lands owned by them in fee simple 
attracted attention, and a commission was appointed by President 
Hayes in 18S0 to inquire into the matter; the commission, consisting 
of Clenerals Crook and Miles and ^lessrs William Stickney and Walter 
Allen, visited the Poidca settlements in Indian Territory and on the 
2S"i(jbrara and eft'ected a satisfactory arrangement of the affairs of the 
tribe, through which the greater iiortiim (some COO) remained in Indian 
Territory, while some 22r) kept their reservation in Nebraska. 

When the (/'egiha divided at the mouth of the Ohio, the ancestors 
of the Osage and Kansa accompanied the main Omaha body up the 
^lississippi to the mouth of Osage river. There the Osage separated 
from the group, ascending the river which bears their name. They 
were distinguished by Maniuette in 1073 as the -'Ouchage" and 
"Autrechaha,"' and by Penicaut in 1719 as the •'Iluzzan,"' ''Ous."and 
"Wawha."' According to Croghan, they were, in 1759, on "White 
creek, a branch of the Mississippi." with the ''Grand Tuc;" but" White 
creek " (or White water) was an old designation for Osage river, and 
"(Irand Tuc" is, according to Mooney, a corruption of '-Grandes Eaux," 
or Great Osage; and there is accordingly no sufticient reason for sup- 
posing that they returned to the Mississippi. Toward the close of the 
eighteenth century the Osage and Kansa encountered the Comanche 
and i)eihaps other Shoshonean ]ieopIes, and their course was turned 
southward; and in 1817, according to Brown, the Great Osage and 
Little Osage were chiefly on Osage and Arkansas rivers, in four vil- 
lages. In 1829 Porter described their country as beginning 2.") miles 
west of the Missouri line and running to the Mexican line of that date, 
being 50 miles wide; and he gave tlieir number as .").0(»0. According to 



Mc«EE] ^EGIHA HISTORY 193 

Sclioolcraft, they numbered 3,758 in April, 1853, but this was after tlie 
reuidval of an important branch known as Black Dog's band to a new 
locality farther down Verdigris river. In 1850 the Osage occupied at 
least seven large villages, besides numerous small ones, on Neosho and 
Verdigris rivers. In 1873, when visited by Dorsey, they were gathered 
on their reservations in what is now Oklahoma. In 1890 they num- 
bered 158. 

The Kaiisa remained with' the Up stream People in their gradual 
ascent of the Missouri to the mouth of the Kaw or Kansas, when they 
diverged westward; but they soon came in contact with inimical 
peoples, and, like the Osage, were driven southward. The date of this 
divergence is not fixed, but it must have been after 1723, when Bourg- 
niont mentioned a large village of "Quans" located on a small river 
flowing northward thirty leagues above Kaw river, near the Missouri. 
After the cession of Louisiana to the United States, a treaty was made 
with the Kansa Indians, who were then on Kaw river, at the mouth of 
the Saline, having been forced back from the Missouri by the Dakota; 
they then numbered about 1,500 and occupied about thirty earth lodges. 
In 1825 they ceded their lands on the Missouri to the Government, 
retaining a reservation on the Kaw, where they were constantly sub- 
jected to attacks from the Pawnee and other tribes, through which large 
numbers of their warriors were slain. In 184G they again ceded their 
lauds and received a new reservation on Neosho river in Kansas. This 
■was soon overrun by settlers, when another reservation was assigned 
to them in Indian Territoiy. near the Osage country. By 1S90 their 
IJopixlation was reduced to 214. 

The Kwapa were found by De Soto in 1541 on the ^lississinpi above 
the mouth of the St Francis, and, according to Marquette's map, they 
were partly east of the Mississippi in 1G73. In 1(!81 La Salle found 
them in three villages distributed along the Mississippi, and soon after- 
ward Toiity mentioned four villages, one (Kappa=LTjia(ipaqti, "Real 
Kwapa") on the Mississippi and three (Toyengan=Ta"wa"-jiiia, "Small 
Village"; Toriiuau=Ti-uadfiman, and Osotonoy=Uzatiuwe) inland; 
this observation was verified by Dorsey in 1883 by the discovery that 
these names are still in use. In early days the Kwapa were known as 
'■Akansa,'' or Arkansa, first noted by La Metairie in 1082. It is prob- 
able that this name was an Algonquian designation given because of 
confusion with, or recognition of affinity to, the Kansa or Ka°ze, the 
prefix "a" being a common one in Algonquian appellations. In 1687 
J(nitel located two of the villages of the tribe on the Arkansas and 
two on the jNIississippi, one of the latter being on the eastern side. 
According to St Cosme, the greater part of the tribe died of smallpox 
in October, 1090. In 1700 De Tlsle i)laced the principal "Acansa" 
village on the southern side of Arkansas river; and, according to 
Gravier, there were in 1701 five villages, the largest, Imaha (Omaha), 
being higliest on the Arkansas. In 1805 Sibley placed the "Arkensa" 
15 ETH 13 



194 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth.ann. 15 

iu three villages on the southern side of Arkansas river, about 12 miles 
above Arkansas post. Thoy flainied to be the original proprietors of 
the country bordering the Arkansas for 300 miles, or up to the conflu- 
ence of the Cadwa, above which lay the territory of the Osage. Sub- 
sequently the Kwapa afliliatcd with the Caddo Indians, though of 
another stock; according to Porter they were in the Caddo country iu 
1S29. As reservations were established, the Kwapa were re-segregated, 
and in 1877 were on their reservation in northwestern Indian Terri- 
tory; but most of them afterward scattered, chiefly to the Osage 
country, where in 1890 they w'ere found to number 232. 

XOIWK'KE 

The aiu^estry and prehistoric movements of the tribes constituting 
this gToup are involved in considerable obscurity, though it is known 
from tradition as well as linguistic atlinity that they siuung from the 
"Winnebago. 

Since the days of Manjuette (1073) the Iowa have ranged over the 
country between the 3Iississippi and Missouri, up to the latitude of 
Oneota (formerly upper Iowa) river, and even across the Missouri 
about the mouth of the Platte. Chauvigaerie located them in 1736 
west of the Mississijjpi and (jjrobably through error in identiflcation of 
the waterway) south of the Missouri; and in 17(il Jefferys placed them 
between ^Missouri river and the headwaters of Des Moines river, above 
the Oto and below the Maha (Omaha). In 1805, according to Drake, 
they dwelt on Des Moines river, forty leagues above its mouth, and 
numbered 800. In 1811 Pike found them in two villages on Des Moines 
and Iowa rivers. In 1815 they were decimated by smallpox, and 
also lost heavily through war against the tribes of the Dakota confed- 
eracy. In 1829 Porter placed them on the Little Platte, some 15 miles 
from the Missouri line, and about 1853 Schoolcraft located them on 
Nemaha river, their principal village being near the mouth of the 
Great Xenmha. In 1848 they sull'ered another epidemic of smallpox, 
by which 100 warriors, besides women and children, were carried oft", 
'As the country settled, the Iowa, like the other Indians of the stock, 
were collected on reservations which they still occui)y in Kansas and 
Oklahoma. According to the last census their population was 273. 

The ^lissouri were first seen by Tonty about l(i70: they were located 
near the Mississippi on ^larquette's map (1673) under the name of 
Ouemessourit, probably a corruption of their name by the Illinois 
tribe, with the characteristic Algonquian ])re(ix. The name Missouri 
was first used by Joutel in 1687. In 1723 P>ourgmont located tlieir 
principal village 30 leagues below Kaw river and 60 leagues below 
the chief settlement of the Kansa; according to Croghan, they were 
l0(-atcd on ^lississippi river opposite the Illinois country in 1759. 
Althougli the early locations arc somewhat indefinite, it seems certain 
that the tribe Ibrmerly dwelt on the Mississippi about the mouth of 



MCGEE) XOIWE'rE and \YiyNEBAGO HISTORY 195 

the Missouri, aud tliat they gradually asceuded the latter stream, 
remaining for a time between Grand and Chariton rivers and establish- 
ing a town on the left bank of the Missouri near the mouth of the 
Grand. There they were found by French traders, who built a fort ou 
an island quite near their village about the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. 8oon afterward they were conquered and dispersed by a 
combination of Sac, Fox, and other Indians; they also suffered from 
smallpox. On the division, five or six lodges joined the Osage, two or 
three took refuge with the Kansa, and most of the remainder amalga- 
mated with the Oto. In 180.5 Lewis and Clark found a part of the 
tribe, numbering about .300, south of Platte river. The only known 
survivors in 1829 were wi(h the Oto, when they numbered no more 
than SO. In 1842 their village stood on the southern bank of Platte 
river near the Oto settlement, and they followed the latter tribe to 
Indian Territory in 1882. 

According to Winnebago tradition, the j^.iiwe're tribes separated from 
that " People of the parent speech '' long ago, the Iowa being the first 
and the Oto the last to leave. In 1G73 the Oto were located by Mar- 
fiuette west of Missouri river, between the fortieth and fortyfirst 
parallels; in KiSO they were 130 leagues from the Illinois, almost oppo- 
site the mouth of the 3Iiskoncing (Wisconsin), and in 1C87 they were 
on Osage river. According to La Ilontan they were, in 1090, ou Oton- 
tas (Osage) river; and iu IGDS Hennepin placed them ten days' journey 
from Fort Creve Canir. Iberville, iu 1700, located the Iowa aiid Oto 
with the Omaha, between Wisconsin and Missouri rivers, about 100 
leagues from the Illinois tribe; and Charlevoix, in 1721, fixed the Oto 
habitat as below that of the Iowa and above that of the Kansa on the 
■western side of the ^Missouri. Dupratz mentions the Oto as a small 
nation on Missouri river in 1758, and Jelierys (17G1) described them 
as occupying the southern bank of the Pauls (Platte) between its mouth 
and the Pawnee territory; according to Porter, they occupied the same 
position in 1829. The Oto claimed the land bordering the Platte from 
their village to the mouth of the river, and also that on both sides of the 
Missouri as far as the liigyemaha. In 1833 Catliu found the Oto and 
Missouri together in the Pawnee country; about 1841 they were gath- 
ered in four villages on the southern siile of the Platte, from 5 to IS 
miles above its mouth. In 1880 a part of the tribe removed to the Sac 
and Fox reservation in Indian Territory, where they still remain; iu 
1882 the rest of the tribe, with the remnant of the Missouri, emigrated 
to the Ponka, Pawnee, and Oto reservation in the present Oklahoma, 
■where, in 1890 they were found to number 400. 

■\;\'INNEBAUO 

Linguistically the Winnebago Indians are closely related to the 
j^oiwe're on the one side and to the Mandau on the other. They were 
first mentioned in the Jesuit Relation of 1630, though the earliest 



196 THE SIOUAN INDIAN'S [eth. ass. 15 

known use of the name Winnebajro oct-iirs in tlie Relation of 1(540; 
Xicollt't found them on Green bay in l()3!t. Accordiuj^ to Shea, the 
"Winnebajjfo werealmost annihihited by the Illinois (Alf^oncjuian) tribe in 
early days, and the historical group was made up of the survivors of 
the early battles. Chauvignerie ]daeed the Winnebago on Lake Supe- 
rior in 173G, and Jeflerys referred to them and the Sac as living m*ar 
the head of (ireen bay in 17G1; Carver mentions a Winnebago village 
on a small island near the eastern end of Winnebago lake in 1778. 
I'ike enumerated seven Winnebago villages existing in 1811: and iu 
1822 the poi)ulation of the tribe was estimated at 5,8U0 i including 900 
warriors) in the <'ountry about Winnebago lake and extending thence 
southwestward to the Mississii)iii. By treaties in ISL'o and 1S3- they 
ceded their lands south of Wisconsin and Fox rivers for a reservation 
on tlie Mississippi above the Oneota; one of their villages in 1832 was 
at Prairie la Crosse. They suffered several visitations of smallpox; 
the third, which occurred in 1830, carried off more than a ([Uarter of 
the tribe. A part of the people long remained widely distributed over 
their old country east of the Mississippi and along that river in Iowa 
and Minnesota; in 1840 most of the tribe removed to the neutral ground 
in the then territory of Iowa; iu 184C they surrendered their reserva- 
tion for another above the ^linnesota, and in 18.50 they were removed 
to Blue Earth, Minnesota. Here they were mastering agriculture, when 
the Sioux war broke out and the settlers demanded their removal. 
Those who had taken up farms, thereby abandoning tribal rights, were 
allowed to remain, but the others were transferred to Crow creek, on 
Missouri river, whence they soon escaped. Their privations and suHer- 
ings were terrible; out of 2,000 taken to Crow creek only 1,200 reached 
the Omaha reservation, whither most of them fled. They were assigned 
a new reservation on the < )malia lands, where they now remain, occupy- 
ing lands allotted in severalty. In 1890 there were 1,215 Winnebago 
on the reservation, but nearly an equal number were scattered over 
Minnesota, Iowa. Wisconsin, and Michigan, where they now live chiefly 
by agriculture, with a strong jjredilection for hunting. 



The Man<lan had a vague tradition of emigration from the eastern 
part of the country, and Lewis and Clark, Prince Maximilian, and 
others found traces of Mandan house-structures at various points 
along the Missouri; thus they api)car to have ascended that stream 
before the advent of the (/'egiha. During the historical period their 
movements were limited; they were first visited in the up])er .Missouri 
country by Sieur de la ^'erendrye in 1738. About 1750 they established 
two villages on the eastern side and seven on the western side of 
the Missouri, near the mouth of Heart river. Here they were assailed 
by the Asiniboin and Dakota and attacked by smalljjox. and were 
greatly reduced j the two eastern villages consolidated, and the people 



MCGEE] M AND AN AND HIDATSA HISTORY 107 

migrated np the Missouri to a poiut 1,430 miles above its moutli (as 
subsequently detenuiued by Lewis and Clark); the seven villages were 
soon reduced to five, and these people also ascended the river and 
formed two villages in the Arikara country, near the ^Mandan of the 
eastern side, where they remained until about 17G(>, when they also 
consolidated. Thus the once powerful and populous tribe was reduced 
to two villages which, in 1804, were found by Lewis and Clark on 
opposite banks of the Missouri, about 4 miles below Knife river. Here 
for <i time the tribe waxed and promised to regain the early prestige, 
reaching a population of 1. GOO in 1S;>7 ; but m that year they were again 
attacked by smallpox and almost annihilated, the survivors numbering 
only 31 according to one account, or 125 to 145 according to others. 
After this visitation they united in one village. When the Hidatsa 
removed from Knife river in 1S45, some of the Mandan accompanied 
them, and others followed at intervals as late as 1858, when only a few 
still remained at their old home. In 1872 a reservation was set apart 
for the Hidatsa and Arikara and the survivors of the Mandan on Mis- 
souri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota and Montana,- but in 188G the 
reservation was reduced. According to the census returns, the Mandan 
numbered 252 in 1890. 



There has been much confusion concerning the definition and desig- 
nation of the Hidatsa Indians. They were formerly known as ilinitari 
or Gros Ventres of the ilissouri, in distinction from the (iros A'entres 
of the plains, who belong to another stock. The origin of the term 
Gros Ventres is somewhat obscure, and various observers have pointed 
out its inapplicability, especially to the well-formed Hidatsa tribesmen. 
According to Dorsey, the French pioneers probably translated a native 
term referring to a traditional buffalo jiaunch, which occupies a promi- 
nent place in the Hidatsa mythology and which, in early times, led to 
a dispute and the separation of the Crow from the main group some 
time in the eighteenth century. 

The earlier legends of the Hidatsa are vague, but there is a definite 
tradition of a migration northward, about 17G5, from the neighborhood 
of Heart river, -where they were associated with the ^Mandan, to Knife 
river. At least as early as 179G, according to Matthews, there were 
three villages belonging to this tribe on Knife river — one at the mouth, 
another half a mile above, and the third and largest 3 miles from the 
mouth. Here the people were found by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and 
here they remained until 1837, when the scourge of smallpox fell and 
many of the jieople perished, the survivors uniting in a single village. 
About 1845 the Hidatsa and a part of the Mandan again migrated up 
the Missouri, and established a village 30 miles by land and 60 miles 
by water above their old home, within what is now Fort Berthold res- 
ervation. Their i)opulation has api>arently varied greatly, i^artly by 



198 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. A.vy. 15 

reason of the ill definition of the tribe by ditlereut einiiiierators, paitly 
by reason of the inroads of smallpox. In isOO they uumbi'n'd jJ2. 

The Crow people are kuown by the Hidatsa as Kiliatsa ^They-refiised- 
thepaunch), according to Matthews; and Dorsey points out that their 
own name, Absarukc, does not mean " crow," but refers to a variety of 
hawk. Lewis ami Clark found the tribe in four bands. In 1S17 Brown 
located them on Yellowstone river. In 1S21) they were described by 
Porter as ranging along Yellowstone river on the eastern side of the 
Eocky mountains, and numbered at 4,000; while in 1834, according to 
Drake, they occupied the southern branch of the Y'ellowstoue, about 
the fortysixth parallel and one hundred and fifth meridian, Avith a 
liopulation of 4,500. In 1842 their nundier was estimated at 4,000, and 
they were described as inhabiting the headwaters of the Yellowstone. 
They have since been duly gathered on the Crow reservation in Mon- 
tana, and are slowlv adopting civilization. In 1800 they numbered 
2,287. 

THE EASTERN AND SOITIIEKN TKIBES 

The history of tlic Mouakan, Catawba, Sara, Pedee, and Santee, and 
incidentally that of the Biloxi, has been carefully reviewed in a recent 
jjublication by Mooney,' and does not require repetition. 

GENEKAL irO^T33IENTS 

On reviewing the records of explorers and pioneers and the few tra- 
ditions which have been preserved, the course of Siouan migration and 
development becomes clear. In general the movements were westward 
and northwestward. The Dakota tribes have not been traced far, 
though several of them, like the Yanktonnai, migrated hundreds of 
miles from the period of first observation to the end of the eighteenth 
century; then came the Mandan, according to their tradition, and as 
they ascended the ."Missouri left traces of their occupancy scattered 
over 1,000 miles of migi-ation; next the (fegiha descended the Ohio 
anil passed from the cis-3Iississippi forests over the trans-Mississippi 
plains— the stronger branch following the JIaudau, while the lesser at 
first descended the great river and then wt>rked up the Arkansas into 
the butValo country until checked and diverted by antagonistic tribes. 
So also the j^oi we're, first recorded near the ^Mississippi, pushed 300 
miles westward; while the Winnebago gradually emigrated from the 
region of the Great Lakes into the traiis-^Iississii)pi country even 
before their movements were aliected by contact with white men. In 
like manner the Uidatsa are known to have llowed northwestward 
many scores of miles; and the Asiniboin swept more rapidly across the 
plains from the place of their rebellion against the Y'anktonnai. on the 
Mississippi, before they found final resting place on the Saskatchewan 

> Sioaan Tribes of the East, 1894. 



MCGKE] SIOUAN MIGRATIONS 109 

plains 500 or 800 miles away. All of tlie movements were eonsistent 
and, despite intertribal friction and strife, measurably liarmonious. The 
lines of movement, so far as tliey can be restored, are in full accord 
witli tbe lines of linguistic evolution traced by Hale and Dorsey and 
Gatscliet, and indicate that some five liundred or possibly one thousand 
years ago the tribesmen pushed over the Appalachians to the Ohio and 
followed that stream and its tributaries to the Mississippi (though there 
are faint indications that some of the early emigrants ascended the 
nortljeru tributaries to the region of the Great Lakes) ; and that the 
human flood gained volume as it advanced and expanded to cover 
the entire region of the plains. The records concerning the movement 
of this great human stream find support in the manifest reason for the 
movement: the reason was the food quest by which all primitive men 
are led, and its end was the abundant fauna of the prairieland. with the 
bufllalo at its head. 

While the early population of the Siouan stock, when first the hunts- 
men crossed the .Appalachians, may not be known, the lines of migra- 
tion indicate that tlie jjeople increased and multiplied amain during 
their long Jouruey. and that their numbers culminated, desidte external 
c(jnflict and internal strife, about the beginning of written history, 
when the Siouan population may have been 100,000 or more. Then 
came war against the wliites and the still more deadly smallpox, 
whereby the vigorous stock was checked and crippled and the popula- 
tion gradually reduced; but since the first shock, which occurred at 
different dates in different parts of the gTeat region, the Sionan people 
have fairly held their own, and some branches are perhaps gaining in 
strength. 

SOME FEATURES OF INDIAN SOCIOLOGY 

■ As shown by Powell, there are two fundamentally distinct classes or 
stages in human society — (1) tribal society and (2) national society. 
National society characterizes civilization ; primarily it is organized on 
a territorial basis, but as enlightenment grows the bases are multi- 
plied. Tribal society is characteristic of savagery and barbarism; .so 
far as known, all tribal societies are organized on the basis of kinship. 
The transfer from tribal society to national society is often, perliaps 
always, through feudalism, in whicli the territorial motive takes root 
and in which the kinship motive withers. 

All of the American aborigines north of ilexico and most of those 
farther southward were in the stage of tribal society when the conti- 
nents were discovered, th<mgh feudalism was apparently budding in 
South America, Central America, and parts of Mexico. The partly 
developed transitional stage may, for the present, be neglected, and 
American Indian sociology may be considered as representing tribal 
society or kinship organization. 

tifC. 



200 THE SIOTJAN INDIANS [eth.ass.15 

The fmulamental principles of tribal oigauizatiou through kinship 
have been formulated by Powell; they are as follows:' 

I. A body of kiiulreil constitutinf; a, distinct l)ody politic is divided into groups, 
the males into ;;roups of lirothers and the females into groups of 8i.sters, on distinc- 
tions of generations, regardless of degrees of consanguinity; and the kinship terms 
nsed express relative age. In civilized society kinships are classified on distinctions 
of sex, distinctions of generations, and distinctions arising from degrees of consan. 
guinity. 

II. When descent is in the female line, the brother-group consists of natal brothers, 
together with all the niatertcrato male cousins of whatever degree. Thus mother's 
sisters' sous and mother's mother's sisters' daughters' sons, etc, are included in a 
group with natal brothers. In like manner the sister-group is composed of natal 
sisters, together with all materterate female cou.sius of whatever degree. 

III. When dc-icent is in the male line, the brother-group is romposeil of natal 
brothers, together with all patruate male cousins of whatever degree, and the sister- 
group is composed of natal sisters, together with all patruate female cousins of 
whatever degree. 

IV. The son of a member of a lirotlier-group calls each one of the group, father; 
the father of a member of a briithei-gri)up calls each oue of the group, son. Thus a 
father-group is coextensive with the brother-groui> to which the father belongs. A 
brother-group may also constitute a father-group and grandfather-group, a son- 
grouj) and a grandson-group. It may also be a patruate-group and an avuiiculate- 
group. It may also be a patruate cousin-group and an a\ninculate cousin-group; 
and in general, every member of a brother-group has the same consanguiueal relation 
to persons outside of the group as that of every other member. 

Two postulates concerning primitive society, adopted by various eth- 
nologic students of other countries, have been erroneously applied to 
tlie Ainericau aborigines; at the same time they have been so widely 
acce])ted as to demaiid consideration. 

Tlio first jiostulate is that primitive men were originally assembled 
in chaotic hordes, and that organized society was developed out of the 
chaotic mass by the segregation of groups and the differentiation of 
functions within each group. Xow the American aborigines collect- 
ively represent a wide range in development, extendnig from a condi- 
tion about as primitive as ever observed well toward the verge of 
feudalism, and thus otl'er opjiortunities for testing the postulate; and 
it lias l)een found that when higher and lower stages representnig any 
portion of the developmental succession are conii)arcd, the social organ- 
izations of the lower grade are no less dehuite, perhaps more definite, 
tlian those pertaining to the higher grade; so tliat when tlie liistory of 
demotic- growth among the American Indians is traced backward, the 
organizations are found on the whole to grow more definite, albeit more 
siiiii)Ie. When the lines of development revealed through research are 
projected still fartlier toward their origin, they indicate an initial con- 
dition, directly antithetic to tlie postulated horde, in which the scant 
population was segregated in small di.screte bodies, probably family 
groups; and that in each of these bodies there was a definite organiza- 
tion, while eixch group was practically independent of, and probably 



' Thinl Aimunl Kejiort uf the liuruau at Ethnology, for 1881-82 (1884), pp. lliv-silv. 



MCGEE] BEGINNING OJ' MARRIAGE 201 

inimical to, all other groups. The testimony of the observed institu- 
tions is corroborated by the testimony of language, which, as clearly 
shown by Powell,' represents progressive combination rather than con- 
tinued dittereutiation, a process of involution rather than evolutiim. 
It would appear that the original definitely organized groups occasion- 
ally met and coalesced, whereby changes in organization were re(iuired; 
that these compound groups occasionally coalesced with other groups 
both simple and compound, whereby they were ehiborated in structure, 
always with some loss in detiniteness and permanence; and that grad- 
ually the groups enlarged by incorporation, while the composite organ- 
ization grew complex and variable to meet the ever-changing condi- 
tions. It would also appear that in some cases the corporeal growth 
outran the structural or institutional growth, when the bodies — clans, 
gentes, tribes, or confederacies — split into two or more fragments which 
continued to grow independently ; yet that in general the progress of 
institutional development went forward through incorporation of peoples 
and diftereiitiation of institutions. The same process was followed as 
tribal society passed into national societj^; and it is the same process 
which is today exalting national society into world society, and trans- 
forming simple civilization into enlightenment. Thus the evolution of 
social organization is from the simple and definite toward the complex 
and variable; or from the involuntary to the voluntary; or from the 
environment-shaped to the environment-shaping; or from the biotic to 
the demotic. 

The second jiostulate, which may be regarded as a corollary of the 
first, is that the primary conjugal condition was one of promiscuity, 
out of which different forms ot marriage were successively segregated. 
Xow the wide range in institutional development exemplified by the 
American Indians aS'ords unprecedented opportunities for testing this 
postulate also. The simplest demotic unit found among the aborigines 
is the clan or mother-descent group, in which the normal conjugal rela- 
tion is essentially monogamous,'' in which marriage is more or less 
strictly regulated by a system of prohibitions, and in which the chief 
conjugal regulation is commonly that of exogamy with respect to the 
clan; in higher groups, more deeply affected by contact with neighbor- 
ing peoples, the simple clan organization is sometimes fijuiid to be 
modified, (1) by tlie adoption and subsequent conjugation of captive 
men and boys, and, doubtless more profoundly, (L*) by the, adoption 
and polj'gamous marriage of female captives; and in still more highly 
organized grouiis the mother-descent is lost and polygamy is regular 
and limited only by the capacity of the husband as a provider. The 
second and third stages are commonly characterized, like the first, 

'Notaljly in "Relation of primitive peoples to environment, illustrated by American examples," 
Smithsonian Report for 1896, pp. G23-638, especially p. 635. 

^Neither space nor present occasion warrants discassion of the curious aphrodisian cults found 
among many peoples, usually in the barbaric stage of development ; it may be noted merely that this 
is an aberrant branch from the main stem of institutional growth. The subject is touched briefly in 
"The beginuiu;; of marriage," American Anthropologist, vol. l.x, pp. 371-383, 'Sov., 1806. 



202 THE SIOUAN INDIANS |eth. ann. 15 

by established proliib.'tions and by dau exogamy; tbough with the 
advance in organization amicable relations witli certain other groups 
are usually established, whereby the germ of tribal organization is 
ini|(lante(l and a system of interclan marriage, or tribal endogamy, is 
developed. With further advance the mother descent group is trans- 
formed into a father-descent group, when the clan is rejdaced by the 
gens; and polygamy is a common feature of the gentile organization. 
In all of these stages the conjugal and cousanguineal regulations are 
aflected by the militant habits cliaracteiistic of primitive groujis: more 
warriors than women are slain in battle, and tliere are more female 
captives than male; and thus the polygamy is mainly or wholly 
polygyny. In many cases civil conditions combine with or i)artially 
replace the militant conditions, yet tiie tendency of conjugal develop- 
ment is not changed. Among the Seri Indians, probably the most 
I^rimitive tribe in North America, in which the demotic unit is the 
clan, there is a rigorous marriage custom under which the would-be 
groom is required to enter the family of the girl and demonstrate (1) 
his capacity as a provider and (2) his strength of character as a man, 
by a ja'ar's probation, before he is finally accepted — the conjugal the- 
ory of the tribe being monogamy, tliongh the practice, at least during 
recent years, has, by reason of conditions, passed into polygyny. 
Among several other tribes of more jjrovident and less exclusive habit, 
the fir.'^t of the two conditions recognized by the Seri is met by rich 
presents (representing accumulated i)roperty) from the groom to the 
girl's family, the second condition being usually ignored, the clan 
organization remaining in force; among still other tribes the first con- 
dition is more or less vaguely recognizeil, though the voluntary present 
is commuted into, or replaced by, a negotiated value exacted by the 
girFs family, when the mother descent is commoidy vestigial; and in 
the next stage, which is abundantly exem])lified. wife-purchase pre- 
vails, and the clan is replaced by the gens. In this succession the 
development of wife-iiurchase and the decadence of mother-descent 
may be traced, and it is significant that there is a tendency first toward 
jiartial enslavement of the wife and later toward the multiplication of 
wives to the limit of the husband's means, and toward transforming 
all, or all but one, of the wives into menials. Thus the lines of devel- 
oi)ment under militant and civil conditions are essentially ])arallel. It 
is possible to jiroject these lines some distance backward into the 
unknown of the exceedingly primitive, when they are found to define 
small discrete bodies — ;just such as are indicated by the institutional 
and linguistic lines — probably family groups, which must have been 
essentially, and w(>re perhaps strictly, monogamous. It would ap])ear 
that in the.so groups mating was either between distant members 
(under a law of attraction toward the remote ami repulsion from the 
near, which is shared by maidvind and the higher animals), or the result 
of accidental meeting between nubile members of different groups; 
that in tlie second case and sometinu's in the first the conjugation 



MCGEE] CLASSIFICATION OF TRIBAL SOCIETY 203 

produced a new monogamic family; and that sometimes in the lirst case 
(and possibly in the second) the new group retained a more or less 
definite connection with the parent group — this connection constituting 
the germ of the clan. In passing, it may be noted merely that this 
inferential origin of the lines of institutional development is in accord 
with tlie habits of certain higher and incipiently organized animals. 
From this hypothetic beginning, primitive marriage may be traced 
througli tlie various observed stages of monogamy and polygamy and 
concubinage and wife-subordination, through savagery and barbarism 
and into civilization, with its curious combination of exoteric monog- 
amy and esotei'ic promiscuity. Fortunately the burden of the proof 
of this evolution does not lujw rest wholly on the evidence obtained 
among the American aborigines; for "Westermarck has recently re- 
viewed the records of observation among the primitive peoi)les of many 
lands, and has found traces of the same sequence in all.' Thus the 
evolution of marriage, like that of other hunum institutions, is from 
the simple and definite to the comjilex and variable; i. e., from approx- 
imate or complete mouogamy through polygamy to a mixed status of 
undetermined signification; or from tlie mechanical to the spontaneous; 
or from the involuntary to the voluntary; or from the provincial to the 
cosmopolitan. 

As imidied in several foregoing paragraphs, and as clearly set forth 
in various publications by Powell, tribal society ialls into two classes 
or stages — (1) clan organization and (2) gentile organization, these 
stages corresponding respectively to savagery and barbarism, strictly 
defined. 

At the time of discovery, most of the American Indians were in the 
up])er stages of savagery and the lower stages of barbarism, as defined 
by organization ; among some tribes descent was reckoned in the female 
line, though definite matriarchies have not been discovered; among 
several tribes descent was and still is i-eckoned in the male line, and 
among all of the tribes thus far investigated the patriarchal system is 
found. 

In tribal society, both clan and gentile, the entire social struc^ture is 
based on real or assumed kinship, and a large part of the demotic 
devices are designed to establish, perpetuate, and advertise kinship 
relations. As already indicated, the conspicuous devices in order of 
development are the taboo with the prohibitions growing out of it, 
kinship nomenclature and regulations, and a system of ordination by 
which incongruous things are brought into association. 

Among the American Indians the taboo and derivative i)rohiliiti(ms 
are used chiefly in connection with marriage and clan or gentile organ- 
ization. Marriage in the clan or gens is prohibited ; among many tribes 
a vestige of the inferential primitive condition is found in the curious 



1 The History of Human Marriagt- ( London, 1891), especially chapters iv 



204 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [etii. .en.-. 15 

proliibition of commuuicatioiis between chiklreii-iu-law and parentsin- 
law: tlie clan taboos are commonly connected with the tutelar beast- 
god, perhaps represented by a totem. 

The essential feature of the kinship terminology is the reckoning 
from ego. whereby ea(;h individual remembers his own relation to every 
other member of the clan or tribe; and commonly the kinship terms 
are classitic rather than descriptive (i. e., a single term expresses the 
relation which in English is expressed by the phrase "My elder 
brother's second son's wife"). The system is curiously complex and 
elaborate. It was not discovered by the earlier and more superficial 
observers of the Indians, and was brought out chiefly by ^lorgan, who 
detected numerous striking examples among dillerent tribes; l)ut it 
would ap])ear that the system is not equally complete among all of the 
tribes, probably because of immature development in some cases and 
because of decadence in others. 

The system of ordination, like that of kinship, is characterized by 
reckoning from the ego and by adventitious associations. It may have 
been developed Irom the kinship system through the need for recogni- 
tion and assignment of adopted captives, collective property, and other 
things i)ertaining to the group; yet it bears traces of intluence by the 
taboo system. Its ramifications are wide: In some cases it emiihasizes 
kinship by assigning members of the family group to fixed positions 
about tlie cami) fire or in the house; this function develops into the 
placement of family grou)is in fixed order, as exem])lified in the Iro- 
quoiau long-house and the Siouan camping circle; or it develops into a 
curiously exaggerated direction concept culminating in the cult of the 
Four (^larters and the Uere, and this ])repares the way for a (juinary, 
decimal, and vigesiTual numeration; this last branch sends off anotlier 
in which the cult of the Six Quarters and the Here arises to prepare 
the way for the mystical numbers 7, 13, and 7x7, whose vestiges come 
dowu to civilization ; both the four-quarter and the six-quarter associa- 
tions are sometimes bound up with colors; and there are numberless 
other ramifications. Sometimes the function and development of these 
cuiious concepts, which constitute perhaps the most striking charac- 
teristic of prescriptorial culture, are obscure at first glance, and hardly 
tt) be discovered even through prolonged research; yet, so far as they 
have been detected and interpreted, they arc esjiecially adapted to fix- 
ing demotic relations; andthrougli them the manifold relations of indi- 
viduals and groups are crystallized and kept in mind. 

Thus the American Indians, including the Siouan stock, are made up 
of families organized into clans or gentes, and combined in tribes, 
sometimes united in confederacies, all on a basis of kinship, real or 
assumed; and the organization is shaped and perjietuated by a series 
of devices pertaining to the plane of prcscri])torial culture, whereby 
each member of the organization is constantly reminded of his position 
in the group. 



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